Reverse Psychology
by Brice Smudar
Summary: Mary-Sues suck. Especially in cliched plots. But what happens when Tyler, an over-powered Mary-Sue in Sonic's world, learns how bad he is? Why should Sonic and the others care about him when the plot shouldn't revolve around him in the first place?
1. Departure

Departure

When you say "Arizona" to someone who has never been to the state, they'll most likely think of dried cacti, dessicated sand and gravel, and a host of scorpions and rattlesnakes, ready to strike at you in the blazing heat.

And they would be right.

Arizona (or at least in Phoenix) was a hot, bleak oven surrounded by purple mountains and an oppressive blue dome of sky that seemed to flatten those who dared live beneath it. The scratchy landscape was all scrub and stone, grit and dust, heat and mirage. Of course, it only looked like this in the outskirts. The suburbs were actually pretty nice, if not a little bland (all the houses looked the same, with the same lawns, same gardens, same cars, same people). Only the two rainy seasons brought any sort of respite from the baking weather, and _that_ only lasted for a few days.

The summer monsoons were actually an awesome sight to see. Or at least, that was Tyler's opinion. He loved to watch the lightning fork out of the swollen purple clouds, or see the walls of dust sweep across the distant Phoenix skyline. But the rain was the best, since it was the only thing that lowered the temperature. The sheeting, pounding rain that splashed in gutters and flooded drains. The rain that fed the cacti and made them bloom into life, and liven up the formerly lifeless flowerbeds of the neighborhood.

It was the right time of year for the monsoons to return. And Tyler couldn't wait.

**...**

Sonic found the rain to be more of a challenge than an annoyance; they made everything slipperier as he grinded across the mossy limb of a tree. Angel Island was having its usual light shower of rain before the microburst actually hit, and Sonic was enjoying every minute of it. The jungle of Angel Island filled two purposes for him today. 1: For an obstacle course, since it was much more challenging to weave through trees than to run in an open field, and 2: To tick off Knuckles enough to engage him in a spar. Man, were _those_ fun. Especially when Sonic won (which usually happened).

He flipped off of the branch onto the moistened forest floor and set off at a light, 500 mile-per-hour jog, sucking scattered leaves into the wake of his path. He wove through the trunks, and found that the trees were thinning out; a sign that he was nearing the edge of the floating island. He reached out and grabbed a sapling, swinging around it, and sling-shotting himself back into the thicket of rainforest to avoid toppling off of the landmass.

He swerved around the trees again like a motorcycle through heavy oncoming traffic, looking around as he did so. Angel Island's rainforest looked different tonight as the sun set behind the clouds. The shining green leaves began to turn teal as the evening light leeched into them. Sonic finally stopped, digging his heels into the earth and plowing up a shallow trench from his rapid deceleration. Something was wrong; it wasn't quite evening yet, so it shouldn't be this dark already. A shadow was passing over the island.

Sonic quickly ran up the face of a tree trunk and stopped at its highest point. He thought that one of Eggman's ships had flown overhead, but he would've heard the roar of igniting plasma from the engine; it was almost silent now. It was an immense wall of thunderclouds, piling up rapidly in the sky, blocking out the final rays of the sun. As a spear of lightning shot out and struck the earth far below the island, Sonic's gut instincts told him that the storm may not be...normal. But then again, what was considered _normal_ here, anyway? He abandoned these thoughts as he saw the summit of the Master Emerald shrine poke up through the canopy of darkening trees, and decided that Knuckles hadn't been bothered in a while.

...

The late summer heat of Phoenix struck Tyler like a falling sandbag as he stepped off of the school bus. Thank _god_ that it was supposed to storm again tonight; he knew he wouldn't be able to take the temperature much longer.

He walked down the sidewalk towards his house, his ears full of the sounds of droning cicadas from the trees that lined the street. He looked away from the blinding sunlight reflecting off of the heated cement sidewalk and noticed the shelf of bruised clouds in the distance. _Good. I was right,_ he thought.

He opened the front door to his two story house (which was identical to all the other two story houses) and walked inside, slipping his backpack off and dropping it to the floor, grateful for the air conditioning. He walked to his kitchen and chugged a bottle of water from the fridge, cooling him down. Finally relaxed, he slumped against the kitchen's island. It was the first weekend of his freshman high school year. He didn't have homework to do, or friends to hang out with since he'd moved here over the summer.

He let his eyes wander across the granite counter top, and saw a yellow post-it note from his mother. Since both his parents worked late nearly every day, post-it notes became a convenient form of communication from them.

_Tyler,_ the note said, _Both your dad and I will be late tonight. Again. Sorry. There's leftovers in the fridge. Samantha and Stanley_ (his younger twin siblings) _are at Grandma's house. Please, please, __please__ clean the shed. We found a nest of geckos in there. Just drag it out onto the lawn or something and hose it down. Love you, Mom. _

_Yeah. I love you too. _Tyler thought.

**...**

Tails the Fox sat at his desk in his dimly lit workshop as the storm's first drops of rain drummed on the roof above him. The workshop was fairly large, with metal shelves and racks filled with gadgets along the walls, echoing the noise. The rain pacified him slightly as he sketched a new sleek plane model for his next aircraft. He couldn't see the storm, however, since most of his home was underground. But he could hear the drops bouncing off of his metal roof on the level above him. The lead in the mechanical pencil he was writing with snapped. He clicked the end of the pencil to get more, but none came. He shook it, hoping to hear the rattle of more lead sticks inside it, only to hear nothing.

He sighed as he got out of his chair, and walked to a cabinet next to his medium-sized television. Tails had left it on earlier, but had muted the sound so he could concentrate on his work. He opened the cabinet and rummaged around for more lead, but couldn't find any. He settled for a fine-point pen. As he went back to his desk, the television screen changed to a weather update on the news. He quickly grabbed the remote and un-muted the television, flicking his tails in unease.

"A heavy storm system is quickly approaching Westopolis," the weatherman said. "People are asked to remain indoors, and be wary of lightning and high winds." He motioned to the map of Westopolis behind him as an image of a thundercloud advanced upon it. The weatherman was handed a piece of paper by someone off screen. "We've just recieved word that our meteorologists are now encouraging people to stay away from windows. The wind speeds have gotten so high that debris is starting to cause some damage. Let's take a look at Westopolis now."

The screen changed to a live image of Westopolis, a large industrial city very close to Tails' home. The camera recording the image must have been on a building's roof, since Tails could only see skyscrapers and towers of the city's skyline. Beyond the skyline was a menacing shelf of purple clouds, swollen with rain and lightning, lit from the side by the dying glow of the sunset. The storm had already struck the suburban areas.

_I forgot to pick up Sonic!_ Tails thought, remembering that he had dropped him off on Angel Island several hours ago. If he was going to fly off and retrieve him before morning, then he'd better do it now before the storm hit.

**_..._**

The thunderstorm came that night, right after the sun had finally shrank under the horizon. It was insane; Tyler had never lived through anything like it. It sounded like someone was dropping several tons of glass marbles on the roof judging by the hammering noise of the rain, and the hail was even worse; a window had cracked in his living room from it. He'd been able to tape it shut, but his parents would still have to replace it. The thunder that accompanied the bright blue-white flashes of lightning was loud enough to shake the dishes in his cabinets. Even the wind was trying to tear his house apart with the way it whistled and blew against the walls, making the support beams creak.

Tyler sat on the couch, straining to hear the sound of his television over the wail of the wind and battering of the rain. But he didn't have to worry about the volume long, since the power in his house abruptly cut out.

"Crap!" he said aloud from surprise. The lightning flashed again, briefly basking the room in an electric blare. In the afterglow of the flash, Tyler was able to locate a drawer in the side table next to the couch and pull out a flashlight. _Okay, I've got a light. Good. The phones are cut out, so I won't be able to call my parents. And my cell phone is out of battery, and the charger is in Mom's car, which isn't here. Great. _

Tyler was startled as a loud cracking sound cut through the muffled noise of the storm. He hesitantly walked over to the entryway near the front door and saw that the rectangular window had been cracked by the hail, just like the window in the living room. Tyler sighed from worry as water leaked through the crack. _At least the streetlights are still on, _he thought. But in the orange glow of the streetlights, Tyler saw his dad's cheap shed out in the middle of the street.

Earlier that day, he'd pulled out the light, plastic shed from his backyard to the front yard, just as his mother had asked. But he'd left it out front to dry after he'd hosed it off, and forgotten about it since now. The wind had actually been strong enough to blow the shed out into the street, where it would probably be a hazard to cars. Tyler thought it would be fun to run out into a storm like this and retrieve it, and against his better judgment, he did just that. He opened the front door with some difficulty as water, leaves, and twigs blew inside and around the door jamb. He finally opened it and bolted outside, letting the door slam shut in the gale.

**...**

Sonic paused at the base of the small, gray crumbling stone pyramid, festooned with ivy. An ancient ramada had been erected at the top, sheltering the Master Emerald and its guardian, Knuckles the World's Most Gullible Echidna (which Sonic thought was a much better title than just 'the Echidna'). The dying sun in the sky was eventually outshone by the viridian glow of the Master Emerald, reflecting its own light silently off of its various facets, pulsing the light in the rhythm of Angel Island. From the base of the pyramid, Sonic could see that Knuckles was napping against the surface of the gem, unaware of the huge storm about to hit. It was only courteous to alert Knuckles of the storm, right? Sonic quietly ran up the pyramid and leaned over him.

"HEY KNUCKLES!" he shouted, then immediately stepped backwards as a spiked fist shot out, narrowly missing him.

"Sonic! Don't do that!" he growled, standing up and rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

"I just wanted to say hi, and that you should probably take cover before that storm hits." Sonic said, pretending that his feelings were hurt. "I thought I was being nice."

"You say that as if you _think_ at all. Now get off my land."

"I can't. This island floats, remember?"

"I know. My first sentence still stands."

Sonic rolled his eyes. "Tails will be here in a few minutes. I'll be out of your fur by then."

"Good, 'cuz --"

Knuckles was interrupted as an enormous peal of energy was released from the Master Emerald, the force of it knocking both of them over in a shower of green concentric waves.

"What the--" Sonic began, until the Master Emerald vibrated, shaking the whole Island with it. Pebbles and loose stones danced up and down from the vibrations on the pyramid's summit.

"Knuckles! Do something! Calm it down!" Sonic yelled over the rumbles. Knuckles placed both of his palms against the Emerald and closed his eyes, muttering something in a dead Echidnian language, hoping that he'd be able to calm the gem down. It didn't work.

Sonic and Knuckles both started floating for a second, along with more pebbles and twigs. The branches of the plants of the forest bent upward with them. After a moment, they both fell back down, and the air was filled with the creaks of branches falling back into place.

"...What was that all about?" Sonic asked. Knuckles placed his palms against the Master Emerald again, and his eyes widened in shock as a trickle of frantic abstract concepts flowed into him.

"...Something's pulling the Master Emerald off of the Island. And we weren't floating...we were falling. The entire Island is falling--" He was cut off as they both started levitating again. "Oof!." he said as he landed. "...It's going to fall all the way in a few minutes, according to the Emerald." he said, grimly.

Sonic stood up, dusting his blue fur off, grinning as he did so. "I wouldn't worry about that too much." he said.

"Why not?" Knuckles demanded. Sonic pointed over his head, and Knuckles turned around. A blue and yellow patterned biplane was landing at the base of the pyramid, its engine noise hidden by the pulsations of the Master Emerald.

"Come on!" Tails called from the plane's cockpit. Sonic and Knuckles couldn't hear him, but they knew what he meant. They both scrambled down the pyramid and into the plane as the rumbling vibrations began again, on a much larger scale.

"You guys okay?" Tails asked as he quickly turned the plane around and flew it off of the island. The other two nodded.

Sonic twisted in his seat to view Angel Island as it slowly descended in the sky, heading on a direct collision course with the earth below. Since the island was mostly flat on the bottom, it would land more-or-less upright, keeping it safe. _But what about the Master Emerald?_ Sonic thought. _Knuckles can't just leave it there..._

There was a miniature explosion on Angel Island as it fell, releasing a shockwave of green light into the overcast night sky, and pushing the biplane forward slightly and rattling its motor. The Master Emerald burst off of the island in a blazing green comet, streaking off into the wall of clouds over the nearby city of Westopolis. Without the Master Emerald, Angel Island fell completely, crashing into the ground in a mushroom-shaped cloud of dust and debris. Sonic tried not to look at Knuckles' face as it happened.

**...**

Tyler only had to walk seven yards to pick up the shed. Seven measly yards. That was all. But it was a freaking _trek_ with all the water and wind that pelted against him. Rain lashed at the pavement as if it were trying to gouge out the concrete, and the wind was so powerful it nearly made him lose his footing. He stumbled over to the shed, slipping twice in ankle-deep flows of water rushing around him and gurgled angrily in the gutter drains. The streetlights flickered, went off, and then came on. His clothes and shaggy hair were plastered against him, making him look like some sort of humanoid penguin as he staggered through the water. There was no sky; just a flat, black ceiling that seemed to only hang a few feet above the roofs of the home in the neighborhood. Lightning flashed briefly, and an enormous clap of thunder shook him.

This was a bad idea. A really bad idea. But he was already at the shed, so there was no point in turning around now. He didn't want to lift it up, since the wind would most likely rip it out of his hands like a kite. Instead, he dragged it back towards his house.

The wind suddenly became sharper, more intense. A low rumbling sound, like a jet engine, growled through the storm. Half of the streetlights went out, plunging the sodden road into a half-darkness.

A huge vertical column of writhing, twisting debris and water bore down on him from the end of the street. _WHAT THE HELL!? Tornadoes don't happen here! What's going on!?_ The vortex was not like the ones you see in the movies. This one was very skinny, only as wide as the street, but it undulated and writhed like a crepe streamer in the wind. The wind suddenly changed direction, and now headed towards the twister. The shed flipped up off of the ground, knocking into Tyler. The shed's doors were open, and he fell in as it closed and latched from the outside. The tornado passed over it.

When it dissipated out of the street, the shed, and Tyler inside it, were both gone.

**...**

Eggman faced his plasma monitor intently with his fat chin resting on his hand, taking in the severity of the storm.

"This is definitely a strong microburst," the news reporter said, delivering his information from windblown street in downtown Westopolis. Lightning flashed in the sky behind him between the skyscrapers. "Reports of damage are already being...reported. At this time the most surprising incident involves a plastic shed...er, um..." The reporter fumbled with his dialogue as it began to hail, peppering him with tiny grains of ice. "The light shed was reported to have carried by high winds several hundred feet above the city. The plastic shed in question was empty, and crashed into the Soleanna Embassy's main window." The screen cut to an image of the Embassy, with it's sculpted front lawns and ornate fountains. The majestic Baroque building was flawless, except for the jagged gaping hole in it's central stained glass window.

"No reports of injury as of yet. However, there have been several Chaos Emerald sightings," Eggman stiffened in his chair, making it creak in protest. "Eyewitnesses are reporting that at least four Chaos Emeralds, including the Master Emerald, are orbiting around the storm. This just goes to show how unusual and violent this microburst is. In the heart of the action we have our field reporter, Ms. Ricki—" Eggman turned off the monitor. _Why not pay Westopolis a little visit?_ he decided.

...

Tails had an audio newsfeed linked to a speaker in his biplane, and turned up the volume when he heard the report.

"We should probably head to the city and see what's up. Chaos Emeralds don't act this way without a reason." he said.

"What would make the Emeralds react so strongly that it would rip away the Master Emerald?" Sonic asked Knuckles.

"I can't say. This has never happened before, as far as I know..." he trailed off, still preoccupied with losing his home.

"We need to land outside of the Westopolis. The storm is revolving around the city, and this plane can't handle those high wind speeds." Tails told them, raising his voice to be heard over the plane's engine, which gotten louder as they began to descend.

They landed under a large tree (hoping that it would shield the biplane somewhat) and headed into the city. The sky above the towering buildings was dark; both from the night sky and the heavy, rain-soaked clouds. The streets were empty of people and Animals (animals that could speak, that is). Fletcher Plaza was in the center of the city, where the heart of the storm supposedly was. So it made sense to go there. The Plaza was a wide downtown street, flanked on all sides by hotels, restaurants, cafes, and boutiques. Gigantic advertisement screens lit up the square more effectively than any streetlight. It began to drizzle lightly as the three of them entered the Plaza, and the misty air made it difficult for any of them to see orbiting Chaos Emeralds that were supposedly flying in the sky above them.

Eventually, a layer of cloud blew out of the way as it depleted itself of water. Out of the gloom, the Emeralds made their appearance, forming a glowing, multicolored ring of energy that pierced through the clouds, several hundred feet in the air. After pulsing one more burst of light, brighter than the last, they faded and scattered, making the advertisement screens flicker slightly.

"Well that was a bust," Sonic said.

_CRASH._

They all jumped at the loud noise behind them. Apparently, something small, but heavy, had landed on top of a parked car, shattering its windows.

"Woah," Sonic gasped, realizing what, or rather, **who**, had fallen. "Is he okay?!"

**...**

It hurt.

A lot.

More than a lot.

But not too much.

Just a lot.

Did that make sense?

Tyler didn't care. What he did care about was that he was confused and disoriented. The thing he lay on was hard and cold and smooth...and wet. The air smelled wet. Like rain! That's what it was. It was rain.

"Woah," someone said, near him. "Is he okay?" It was a guy's voice, he was sure. He opened his eyes, and realized he wasn't wearing his glasses.

"Are you alright?" the same voice said. Apparently, it was addressing him.

"Sonic, of course he's not okay! He landed on top of a car!" a deeper voice said.

"Calm down, Knuckles. I don't see _you_ helping." the first voice retorted. Tyler hoped for that person's sake that 'Knuckles' was just a nickname.

"Guys, knock it off and help me get him off of here!" a third, higher voiced added. He felt someone tug at his right arm, one tug at first, and then several tugs from different people. It hurt, but he said nothing. He heard their feet shuffle and jingle through pieces of broken glass. They carefully set him down on...a curb? Was he still in his neighborhood? No, he was in...a city street? Why was he here?

He looked around him. The buildings were too tall for them to be in any Arizona city. The sky was dark and cloudy and swollen from the storm like a bruise. He could feel the wet concrete beneath him seep through his jeans. Giant commercial screens were attached to the skyscrapers, filling the street with a neon glow that hurt his eyes.

He looked at the people who had pulled him off the car. He stared in shock as he realized that these people weren't human. One was a yellow-orange cat looking thing. The other was a thicker, red teddy bear looking creature with dreadlocks and big...paws? The last one looked like some sort of blue, cartoony porcupine.

_WHERE AM I?_

_

* * *

_

**I really like this chapter now that it's been rewritten. It was pretty bad, believe me. Sonic was almost barely in it ^^' But it's fixed now, and that's what matters. This chapter was betaread by LupinAKAFlashTH, Loor101, and Frozen Nitrogen, in some form or another. Yay them! The other early chapters will be rewritten also to match the the style of this one. Hoorah.**


	2. Arrival

_AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've gotta thank Loor101 for betareading this chapter. Thanks to her, the sentences and grammar flow better. Yay!_

Arrival

"Um...hi?" Tyler said tentatively. _This has to be a hallucination. I hit my head way too hard, and now I'm unconscious. There's no way I'm talking to animals._ "Where am I?... Is this Phoenix?" The three...**people**looked at each other, confused. The catlike one(or rather, Foxlike) spoke first.

"No, this is Westopolis. Fletcher Plaza if you want to get specific." Tyler noticed the Fox thing had two tails. His confusion must have shown on his face.

"You're not from around here, are you?" the blue spiky creature said. "What's your name?"

Tyler was hesitant on giving his name to strangers, but they seemed remotely concerned. His shoulder throbbed from his crash landing as his adrenaline wore off.

"I'm Tyler. Who are you?"

"I'm Knuckles," the red one said.

"I'm Miles, but everyone calls me Tails." the fox said. _That's quite a stretch for a nickname,_ Tyler thought.

"And I'm Sonic the Hedgehog." _Oh, he's a Hedgehog, not a porcupine._ He shook his head, more confused then ever. _Animals don't talk, this is a dream, animals don't talk..._

"I must of hit my head harder then I thought," Tyler sighed.

"Why do you say that?" Knuckles asked. Tyler didn't know how to put it.

"Well...you three don't look...**normal** to me. I must be hallucinating, or something."

"What do you mean, normal?" Sonic asked.

"You're not human,"

"So?" said Knuckles.

"Well," continued Tyler, "I don't know about 'Westopolis,' but in Arizona, animals can't talk. Only people can."

"Ar-ih-zone-ah?" Knuckles pronounced, "Where's that?"

"Oh...dude, you got...stuff...**there**." Sonic said, gesturing to Tyler's left shoulder. Tyler turned to look, and was startled by the amount of shining blood dripping down. He had never bled that much before, and no one had noticed the bleeding until now due to the dark color of his shirt. He immediately clamped a hand over his shoulder, wincing from the dull ache of the unseen wound, and from the sliminess of his shirt. He looked at the car he had landed on, and saw a jagged spike of what remained of its radio antennae. When he was being dragged off of the vehicle, the spike must have cut his shoulder.

"Westopolis has a hospital, right?" Tyler said, attempting to stand up. His pants felt extremely large for him, so he quickly tightened his belt before they could fall to his ankles, leaving a burgundy stain on the fastener. In the brief headrush he received from standing, he felt abstract shapes press against his mind; there were long, skinny shapes, short blunt shapes, and massive immobile shapes. They were pressed against his subconscious like wooden blocks pressed into clay.

"The nearest hospital isn't too far from here. Just a couple of blocks." Sonic said, eyeing Tyler's shoulder with concern. _Woah, I could've sworn these guys were only four feet tall,_ Tyler thought. _I'm at eye level with them._ Tyler also noticed that his voice seemed unusually high-pitched. They began to lead him down the street. Knuckles and Tails started talking about something called 'Kayoss Emeralds' and what it had to do with the storm, or something like that. _The storm...is that how I got here?_ He couldn't concentrate, the imaginary shapes were being pressed into his mind again. Tyler kept glancing at his shoulder nervously, wondering if he had stopped bleeding. Sonic tried to distract Tyler from his wound.

"So...you were saying something about Arizona?"

"Yeah, it's where I live. Animals don't talk there. They don't walk, or talk, or think, or have opposable thumbs like you guys do."

"There isn't any place called 'Arizona' near here, or anywhere that I know of," Sonic said. It was his turn to look confused. _Uh-oh,_ Tyler suddenly thought, _Toto, I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore... _It was only Tyler's belief that he was dreaming that let him take all of this information in stride.

They left the glare of the multicolored advertisements of Fletcher Plaza into a nondescript shopping district. Since it was night, most of the stores had metal grilles over their windows, except a few. Tyler caught sight of his reflection in the glass and stopped breathing; his reflection didn't show him, but some other kid, a kid who could easily be his little brother's age. They passed by more windows, and it was undeniable. Tyler had regressed back into some sort of 8-year-old body. He was no longer six feet tall, no longer had glasses, and his shaggy hair had turned from brown to black.

...

Sonic noticed that every time they passed by Tyler's reflection, he would shudder slightly.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'll be fine..." Tyler replied. But he didn't look fine, he looked downright scared, confused, and rather bloody. _Who could blame him? _Sonic thought, _The kid had somehow been sucked from his home (wherever it was) and literally dropped in an entirely new place. And what kind of world is he from where Animals can't talk? _It didn't make sense.

"We're almost there," Tails told them, more for Tyler's benefit than anyone else's.

"Wait!" Knuckles said, his body stiffening. He kneeled and placed his palm on the ground, feeling for vibrations.

"What's wrong?"Tyler asked. Knuckles didn't answer for a moment.

"Something's coming; something big and heavy...most likely Eggman."

Tails gasped, and Tyler seemed to have caught on to the severity of the situation.

"Who are Egg-men?" he asked. _Can eggs talk here, too?_

"Not 'Egg-men,' **Eggman**." Tails explained. "He's our biggest enemy." He turned to Sonic. "What should we do?"

"We won't be able to avoid him, not here." Sonic said grimly. "He heard about the Chaos Emeralds that were floating above the city, and came to get them." He quickly walked Tyler over to a large mailbox. "Stay behind this, don't let him see you. And keep your hand on that," he said, indicating Tyler's shoulder.

"What's going on?" he said, definitely scared now.

"Everything's gonna be fine," Sonic reassured him. "We've dealt with Eggman more times than you realize. We've always won." That seemed to pacify Tyler slightly, but he still looked on edge. By now, they could hear the metallic clanking and rumbling of a large, metallic engine.

...

Eggman's machine rounded the corner. This time, his giant robot of choice was an immense lobster-like contraption with four robotic claws. In the 'head' was Eggman, visible through a large viewing window. Eggman himself, to Tyler, was aptly named. He had fat, spherical body and a bald head. He had the largest mustache Tyler had ever seen, and a tiny pair of dark glasses. Oddly enough, his arms and legs were long and thin, contrasting with his body. He wore some sort of red tuxedo with large metal fasteners with tight black pants. He looked like a cross between Santa Claus and a spider and fat red spider.

"Well, what do we have here? An unruly group of Chaos Emerald thieves? Can't a man enjoy a simple walk through town without running into such unsavory company?" Eggman's voice was magnified through speakers, reverberating off of the surrounding buildings. _Great, the first human I meet in this bizarre place, and he's some sort of evil villain. Woo-hoo._

"I'm afraid the Emeralds don't belong to you miscreants," Eggman continued. "I'll be taking them from you now."

"You're too late, Eggman!" Sonic shouted at him. "The Emeralds scattered after the storm ended."

"Sorry to disappoint you!" Knuckles added sarcastically.

"I'm afraid you're the ones about to be sorry." Eggman said. In the lobster's head, he began typing on a keyboard. The lobster's claws suddenly lunged at Sonic and the others, who easily dodged them. A gun-like contraption unfolded itself from the back of the robot's body. It aimed itself at Knuckles and fired a **laser**.

_A laser?! They have lasers here!_Tyler watched as Eggman attempted to destroy his new acquaintances. Knuckles had dodged the laser blast and sprinted up to the lobster's hull. He jumped up at it and punched it, leaving a dent, as if he had punched a soda can. Tyler was awestruck; the metal had to be at least six inches thick, but he had damaged it with a single punch. One of the claws swung down and struck Knuckles, knocking him down. Despite how forceful the impact looked, Knuckles got up rather quickly and punched again, leaving a larger crater in the metal.

Meanwhile, the laser had aimed it's bulbous cannon towards Tails and fired an iridescent yellow beam of energy. Tails also dodged it by whirling his two tails around like helicopter blades and flew into the sky, as the laser melted the blacktop of the street, where it instantly cooling into a hard black froth. _How can Tails do that? That's not even physically possible. But I guess I shouldn't read too much logic into a place where furry little Animals can talk and fight. _

Sonic had been dealing with another lobster claw at this time. As the the lobster swung down to hit him, he literally vanished, only to reappear in an instant on the other side of the street to distract another claw from hitting Knuckles, who had bashed more dents into the robot. _Can he teleport? Is that how he did that? _Sonic vanished again, returning into Tyler's view back at the claw he was originally sparring with. The claw swivelled downward, and Tyler thought that it had actually nailed Sonic, but he had vanished again. Wait...no. He wasn't teleporting. He was **that fast**. As if he knew Tyler was specifically watching him, he ran up the side of a building all the way up to the 9th story and backflipped off of it. As he fell towards the ground, he curled into a spiky ball and rammed into Eggman's viewing window. The glass cracked audibly, but it didn't shatter. Tyler could barely keep up with Sonic's attack; it was all a blue blurs and afterimages to him. Literally 'blink-and-you'll-miss-it.'

But it occured to Tyler that this all felt too...simple. Tails had said that Eggman was their biggest enemy, but he seemed rather easy to beat. Sonic and the others were obviously winning; none of them were hurt, but the lobster was covered in dents, and the red paint had been scratched off to reveal dull gray metal underneath. Tyler removed his hand from his shoulder. It stopped bleeding, but it really hurt. He flexed his fingers, making the dried blood on them crack off.

_But still, what if they get hit? Then what happens? If they weren't slowed down by me, they wouldn't have had to fight this Eggman guy. What can I do to help? Is there anything I __**can**__ do? And would those stupid shapes in my head just __**GO AWAY!**_

**WRENCH.**

Tyler felt one of the long, thin shapes in his head give away, and at the same time, he heard a metallic, bending sound. _Did Sonic and the others win? _He peeked around the mailbox, but could see that they were still fighting. But what made that wrenching noise? He looked around and saw the streetlight nearest to him was bent in the opposite direction from where he was hiding. _Did I do that?_he gasped. He pushed with his subconscious again. The streetlight bent even more. In his mind's eye, he could see every aspect of the streetlight:

_(filament lightbulb glass metal pole current electricity metal cold cylindrical metal cable concrete)_

Feeling bold, he looked around for a smaller target. In the gutter was a plastic yogurt cup with a label he didn't recognize, among other litter. He pushed at it with his will, and it moved away.

_(plastic cup fruit dairy white easy light plastic)_

He picked it up, watched it float in midair unsupported, then threw it with all of his might against a wall, where it cracked in half. He had an idea...

...

Sonic nimbly avoided all of Eggman's attacks. The lobster flung its heavy claws at him, but missed by a mile. The laser was worse; it never even got close to touching him. Tails and Knuckles weren't even breaking a sweat. Sonic got cocky and stuck his tongue out.

"Is that the best you've got? You must be tired. Shouldn't senior citizens like you be in bed now?" But this was part of Eggman's plan. He was purposely missing Sonic to get his guard down. The lobster's claw shot out and grabbed Sonic around the middle, pinning his arms to his sides. The robot had more than one set of claws, and Knuckles and Tails found themselves in the same position.

"Well now," Eggman chuckled. "You were saying, Mr. Smart-aleck?" The laser's muzzle moved down on it's flexible arm, aiming directly into Sonic's face.

"You've been a spiky blue thorn in my side for far too long. I'd feel better if you were eradicated first." The laser charged up, building up the most possible energy to completely incinerate Sonic.

But out of nowhere, a long, thin object flew through the air and speared through the laser. The laser cannon exploded, loosening the claw's grip around Sonic, allowing him to get free. While the lobster was still reeling, he quickly released Knuckles and Tails. Sonic turned and realized that the laser was destroyed with a streetlight that was pulled out of the sidewalk. _How on Earth..._but then he saw Tyler standing up behind the mailbox, staring intently at a second streetlight. The streetlight wiggled and trembled violently, causing it's lightbulb to explode, before it was finally ripped free of the road. It aimed itself in midair toward's Eggman's machine, and launched itself at it like a guided missile. It collided at the base of the lobster's neck, severing it's support cables, and causing the weight of the head to rip it off and hit the ground.

Sufficiently weakened, the rest of the giant robot collapsed in a heap. The head raised up from the ground, propelled by small boosters on it's bottom, turning it into an escape pod, containing Eggman.

"I know you have the Chaos Emeralds, you blasted Hedgehog! My computer shows that the energy readings are off the charts! Just you wait until I--" Knuckles punched the pod, sending Eggman hurtling into the sky.

...

_Oh god oh god oh god oh god. _The stress of picking up the streetlights was almost too much for Tyler to handle. When he had picked up the first streetlight, the scab on his shoulder burst, and the stress from the second streetlight caused a gout of blood to rush out. He needed to see a doctor. Now.

"Good job, guys. You beat him." he said weakly. His knees began to tremble.

"Tyler, you destroyed Eggman's robot, didn't you!" Tails exclaimed, "That was **incredible**! Did you even **know** you could do that? I mean, **wow**!" Tyler gave him a small pained smile. They didn't notice that he was bleeding again.

"I think we'd better get to the hospital," Tyler sighed. "I feel like I'm gonna--"he passed out. Knuckles caught him before he struck the pavement. They were all silent for a moment.

"We'd better go, the sooner the better." Knuckles lifted Tyler and started walking.

"What did Eggman mean, when he said there was still a massive amount of energy near us?" Tails asked Sonic.

"I think I might know," he said, as they followed Knuckles to Westopolis Central Hospital.

* * *

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	3. Settling

_AUTHOR'S NOTE: Once agian, I have to thank Loor101 for fixing the screwed-up dialogue in this chapter, among other important edits. I'm very grateful to her for sacrificing some of her spare time in order to fix my mistakes. Yay for her! _

Settling

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

_Stop beeping please, it's annoying._

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

_I asked politely. Stop beeping._

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

_Knock it OFF!_

**CRACK.**

Tyler opened his eyes, once again confused about his surroundings. _Is waking up in a new location gonna keep happening?_ The beeping still continued, but from where? He looked around. He found himself laying in a hospital bed. The room he was in was small, illuminated by flourescent lights in the ceiling. A wide green horizontal stripe was painted around the walls. He noticed an IV drip line was attached to his left arm. "_Gross."_ His shoulder was bandaged in some sort of cottony gauze. To his right was a heart monitor, where the beeping noise was coming from. The monitor's glass had a crack in it. _Oops. _The wall opposite him had the door, with large windows on either side. Outside of his room was a busy hallway, where nurses and doctors and interns busily rushed about.

A nurse entered through the door. _I knew I was dreaming. I received a head injury and hallucinated everything. And now that I've woken up, I can get back to my real life._

"Good, you've woken up." she said. She was carrying a clipboard.

"How long have I been out?" Tyler asked. _My voice still sounds really young..._

"You were delivered here last night, at about 9:35." she said, glancing down at her clipboard. " It's 6:19 in the morning right now."

"What's wrong with me? Concussion?"

"No, you've suffered from shock and fatigue. Your body became very weak, and had to shut down to make repairs. You also seemed to have lacerated your shoulder."

"Will I be okay?"

"Of course, you've completely recovered overnight. Your heart monitor showed us that–" she glanced at the screen, but noticed the crack. "Oh dear, we'll have to replace that. Anyway, once your feeling better, you can be discharged from the hospital." _Good. I miss my family. Do they even know I'm here? _Tyler thought. He remembered a hospital that was built near his house not too long ago, but he couldn't remember the name for some reason.

"What hospital is this? St. Timothy's?" Her brow furrowed at the name.

"I don't know where that hospital is, but this one is Westopolis Central." Tyler's heart rate began beeping faster. _I'm still here...I'm still stuck here..._

"By the way," she added, "You have a visitor. He asked to see you once you woke up." _Who?_ "Would you like to see him?" she asked. Tyler paused for a moment.

"Yeah, I'll see him." She nodded and left. The waiting room must've been nearby, because she returned soon after, with Sonic in tow. She opened the door for him, and left.

...

_That poor kid,_ the nurse thought as she walked down the hallway. _People don't faint from that kind of stress, except for rescue workers, or firefighters. What could he have been doing?_

...

Sonic entered the room and closed the door behind him. He grabbed a small chair that Tyler hadn't noticed and sat down, facing him.

"Hi."Tyler felt slightly awkward.

"Hi," he replied. "Feeling better?" Tyler nodded.

"A bit. That nurse told me that I could leave when I felt ready." Sonic's expression turned to slight worry.

"Where are you going to go?" he asked. Tyler didn't know. _Surely Westopolis has some sort of shelter for the homeless, right?_

"I don't know. I'm kinda new to this place. What do you suggest?" Sonic obviously knew much more about this place than **he** did. He seemed to have anticipated his answer, because he responded immediately.

"I have a friend who loves treating guests. I'm sure she could house you for a while." Tyler was completely taken aback. He didn't even know this guy for 30 minutes at a time, and he was already inviting him to stay at his friend's house. _Maybe it's because I saved his life?_

"What's she like?" Tyler asked.

"Well, she's a Hedgehog too. Her name's Amy. She's really nice, as long as you don't get her angry. She can get a little...feisty."

"Would she be alright with me staying with her?"

"I'm sure she would. Is that a yes?"

"Sure."

"I'll go call her right now. I'll be right back." Quicker than a speeding bullet, (almost literally) Sonic jumped out of his chair and left. _Well, I'll just have to accept that this is a real place after all._ He looked at the chair. He felt the plastic seat and the metal legs in his head.

_(plastic metal plastic seat metal)_

Slowly, he made it tip over. He only had to squint his eyes. _Maybe this won't be so bad._

...

Outside on the street , dawn was just breaking over the skyscrapers. Sonic placed some coins into a payphone and dialed Amy's number. _Hopefully I'm not waking her._ She answered the phone after a few rings.

"Hello?" she said, still groggy from sleep.

"Hi Amy, it's Sonic." He immediately had to pull the phone away from his ear before Amy's squeal of delight burst his eardrum.

"SONIC! Hi! How are you? Where have you been? I heard Eggman was in the city last night! Did you see him? That was a crazy storm! My rosebushes got ruined, but one of them survived! Did you see–"

"Amy," Sonic interrupted, "Relax. Something happened last night. I don't know how, but this kid got...dropped here through the storm. Can he stay at your house for a while, until he finds a place of his own?" _As if she's gonna say no to me._

"Oh, of **course**. Look at you, being all charitable! Sonic, you're so **thoughtful!"**

"Heh. I'll see you later, Amy."

"Okay! See you soon!" she said cheerily on the other end as Sonic hung up the phone.

...

The hospital released Tyler after Sonic signed a few dismissal sheets for him. They stepped out onto the sidewalk. By now, the sun had risen.

"Wow. What's with that get up?" said Sonic, pointing out Tyler's large clothes.

"They fit me just fine before the storm. At least I'm **wearing **clothes." Sonic's only clothes were white gloves and red shoes. "How far away is Amy's house?"

"It's outside of the city, but not far from there."

"We'd better start walking, then." Tyler started to move down the street, _Maybe we could take a bus–_ before Sonic rushed up to him from behind. Suddenly, he was moving extremely fast, wind and bugs pelted his face as they passed block after block in a matter of seconds.

"Woah, hold on there! What are you doing?!" Tyler shouted at Sonic. He smirked, pretended he couldn't hear, and put on a burst of speed. The city's last buildings flew past, making way for the country. Sonic made an immediate right turn, towards some grassy hills. On top of the hills were small houses, brightly painted and surrounded by trees.

They stopped in front of one of the cottages. _Holy cow, _Tyler thought. _This chick loves pink._ The house was painted light pink, with maroon molding. The window shutters had hearts cut out of them. To the left of the house, surrounded by a gate, was a small garden. Sonic set Tyler down and knocked on the door. Amy answered it, and Tyler wasn't surprised by this new Hedgehog's appearance. She had pink fur, teal eyes, and a red dress and headband.

"Sonic!" she cried, giving him a huge hug. _I wonder if she has a thing for him._ After releasing Sonic from her stranglehold, she turned to Tyler.

"Hi! I'm Amy! Are you that boy from the storm Sonic was talking about?"

"I guess so. I like your house, it's really...pretty." _It looks like Minnie Mouse and Barbie designed it._

"Thank you! I like your...clothes? We're gonna have to go shopping later. Come on in!" They went inside to an interior just as pink and girly as the exterior. Amy's house was small, but her pink furniture was placed well. There was a living room with a couch, chair, coffee table, and a medium sized T.V. Separated by a low wall from the living room was her kitchen. On the other side of the living room were three open doorways; one to a guest room, one to the master bedroom, and a bathroom.

"I'll leave you to get settled, but I'll be back soon. Knuckles wanted to know if you were okay." Sonic said, eyeing the front door.

"Oh, can't you stay? I was just about to make some tea," Amy said, batting her eyes unecessarily.

Sonic rolled his eyes in response.

"No, I should really be going, but I'll be back later today. See ya!" He bolted for the door, and was gone. Amy looked sad for a moment, but then shrugged it off to attend to Tyler.

"Okay Tyler, I have the guest room all made up for you," she motioned towards one of the doorways. "There's a bed and a dresser in there. We can buy you some clothes later. Are you hungry?" Tyler realized he hadn't eaten at all since he'd arrived.

"Actually, I am pretty hungry."

"Would you like some scrambled eggs and toast?"

"That would be great, I'll help." They went to the kitchen. Amy got out a pan and a carton of eggs. After a little searching, Tyler found a loaf of bread and a toaster in a pink (go figure) cabinet. _Wait, scrambled eggs?_

"Amy?" Tyler asked hesitantly.

"Hm?" she said as she turned on the stove.

"Where do these eggs come from?"

"Chickens, of course." she giggled.

"**Talking** Chickens?"

"Oh, no, not Talking Chickens, that's disgusting!" She explained. "I don't know about your home, but in **this** place, there are talking Animals, and regular animals. The talking Animals are just like humans, while the normal animals are used on farms, as pets, and for food." That explained a lot for Tyler.

After eating, Amy decided to introduce Tyler to the neighbors. They went out through the front door and headed to the house on their right. The house in particular was made of concrete, and not very big.

"Who's house is this?" Tyler asked.

"This is Tails' house."

"Oh! I met him. He's a Fox, right? With two tails?"

"That's right," Amy smiled at him. "He's also a mechanic. He likes to build all sorts of planes and helicopters. I remember this one time when he built this really pretty—_blah blah blah blah blah._ _As nice as Amy is, she sure does talk a__** lot**__...Just like Samantha, my sister...no, don't think about that right now._ Tyler tried to listen, but got lost in the one-sided conversation. They finally made it to Tails' small cement rectangle of a house. The house had a metal door that appeared to move up and down, like a garage door. There was a doorbell. Amy pushed it, and the door slid up. They walked inside, but it was empty. The walls and metal floor were bare.

"He doesn't like to decorate much, does he?"Tyler stated.

"Hm? Oh, silly me." She pressed a button on the wall that was shaped like an arrow pointing down. The floor slid downward like an elevator, and they descended for several seconds. The sliding door reopened, revealing Tails' workshop. The room was large, with a small door leading off of it that presumably led to a bedroom.

"Hi guys!" Tails called to them from across the room. "Come on in!" Half of the walls were covered in tools and metal parts, while the othere half was covered in shelves with finished gadgets that beeped or lit up or hummed. "Hey Tyler! Feeling better?"Tails asked.

"Yeah, loads better. How are you?" Tyler inquired politely.

"I'm fine. What's up, Amy?"

"I'm taking care of Tyler while he's here," Amy said.

"Cool, I was wondering where you were gonna stay." Tails said. "Wanna see something cool I just made?"

"Yeah, I do!" Tyler said.

...

Eggman's base was hidden, situated miles away from Westopolis and the surrounding countryside. His fortress was huge, large enough to contain all of his massive aircrafts and giant mechas. In the main control room, Eggman sat watching the recording of the battle between him and Sonic. Before he ran into Sonic and his imbecilic cohorts the night before, he released a small video probe to fly around the area. The egg-sized camera flew around like a hummingbird, recording high-definition videos wherever it went. Eggman sent out the probe to find the Chaos Emeralds in the city, but never found them. _But then what was generating such a strong charge?_ Eggman pondered. _The Emeralds obviously weren't close by, so why were my scanners displaying such high frequencies?_ The video zoomed in and out of Fletcher Square, recording the fight. He saw Sonic become trapped by his Mecha Crustacean, only to have it destroyed by a lamp post. Where had it come from?

Eggman had watched the video many times, but this time he saw something unusual; on the sidewalk was a large mailbox, but someone small was behind it. Eggman switched the video into X-Ray mode, allowing him to see through the obstruction. Behind it was a small boy. Eggman could tell by the way he was crouching that he was manipulating the streetlights, tearing them out by their cables and hurling them at his precious machine, without touching them. _Who on Earth is __**that**__?_

Eggman remembered that he sent his video probe to follow Sonic and the others after the fight was over, to make sure that they didn't lie about not having any Emeralds. He switched to the camera's second recorded video, which he had not yet seen. The boy behind the mailbox had lost consciousness, and was taken to the hospital by Sonic and the others. They entered the hospital, but only the Animals exited, for they had obviously handed their friend over to a doctor. Eggman fast-forwarded several hours of footage to a point in the video that was just recorded several minutes ago. Sonic and his friend left the hospital, and ran out of view. Unfortunately, the camera ran out of battery, and was unable to pursue them.

Eggman opened a new file alongside the video, displaying a scale that measured unusual forms of energy. He replayed the video from the beginning, and saw what he expected to see; whenever the boy was on camera, the scale shot up. _If that was the energy's source..._ Eggman pondered, _I wonder...could I put that to use?_

* * *

**REVIEW!**


	4. Shore

_AUTHOR'S NOTE: This has been betaread by Loor101._

Shore

Tyler spent the remainder of the week spending time with his new friends. Tails could build amazing planes, jets, and spy equipment. _I doubt the U.S. military has any of these._ Amy was cool with Tyler staying with at her house, but he insisted on doing some housework to repay her. He asked her many questions about the world he was in. _Is time measured the same way? Are there seven days in a week here? How many continents are there?_ She could answer most of his questions, and most of the answers were the same as his home world.

Sonic and Knuckles were fun to hang out with, since they were closer to his actual age. Sonic was very funny, but his attitude tended to annoy Knuckles. Knuckles seemed to be the more mature of the two. When Sonic wasn't running, (which was rare) he told him about Eggman, and how he was always concocting preposterous schemes to dominate the Earth. It was usually pretty easy to defeat him, since he left obvious weaknesses in his machines.

Knuckles explained what the Chaos Emeralds were. There were seven Emeralds, not including the Master Emerald. Each one was extremely powerful, and contained enough energy to sustain Westopolis for a century. Whenever all seven Emeralds came together, some sort of 'miracle' would happen. According to Knuckles, the 'miracle' was usually Sonic or Shadow (a Hedgehog Tyler had not yet met or seen) receiving an immense power boost, enabling them to defeat any enemy. The Master Emerald was supposed to be the most powerful of all the Emeralds, and an omnipotent guardian to Chaos itself. It was Knuckles' job to guard the Master Emerald from those who wished to misuse Chaos, but it vanished on the night of Tyler's arrival, leaving Knuckles with nothing to do and no way to search for it.

When Tyler wasn't enjoying his friends' company, he was practicing. His ability to manipulate objects using solely his thoughts was getting better. Every day, he went behind Amy's house and lifted small stones, first one, then two, then several. After mastering that, he would practice throwing the rocks at high speeds. After a week, he could propel a pebble like a bullet through a scarecrow. He also practiced on larger objects, like boulders and bricks. Once, he accidentally manipulated a squirrel, (a non-speaking squirrel) and immediately swore off of controlling live things. _Controlling objects is one thing. But live things? No. That's not right._ The sensation of such power was frightening.

...

Tyler got dressed for the day. He decided to wear a black and green striped hoodie over his grey shirt. The weather was much cooler here than in Arizona. He observed himself in the mirror. _I really have changed,_ he thought. His height was about four feet, but he could only guess because they used a different unit of measurement here. His hair was still a little long, but it was black, as opposed to the original brown. His glasses were gone, but he could see just fine without them. At least his eyes were still green. Living in Arizona's sun made his skin a beige tone, but now he was very pale, almost albino. _I look like an emo first-grader._

He left the mirror and met Amy in the living room.

"Good morning," she said. She was dressed too.

"Good morning," Tyler replied. "I think** I'll** make breakfast today. What do you have in mind?"

"I'm really not that hungry," she said. "I'll just have cereal." _Good, that's easy, _he thought. _Now, where's the cereal..._He sat down in a chair, facing the television. Behind him in the kitchen, a cabinet swung open. A box of cereal and a bowl floated out onto the table. A drawer opened, and a fork came out. _No, not a fork. A spoon._ The fork dropped back into the drawer and was replaced by a spoon, which glided over next to the bowl. The refrigerator opened by a crack, _Open wider, the milk's gotta fit through,_ then flew wide, bumping the wall behind it. _Oops._ The milk carton opened its spout as it moved towards the table. _Don't miss the bowl..._ the box poured in the cereal, then the milk. _No spills. Good._

"Breakfast is served." he said smugly.

"Good job," Amy said. "That was faster than yesterday's."

...

Knuckles had just bought a cinnamon bun from a street vendor, and was walking down the road. _I'm not far from where Tyler landed,_ he thought. He walked past an electronics store. In the display windows were several flat-screen televisions, each one displaying the same news channel. Knuckles would've kept walking, but the news suddenly issued a Chaos Alert.

"Good morning, Westopolis. We'd like to give a quick update on the Chaos Emerald found this morning at Ewen Lighthouse National Monument." The female anchor's face was replaced by an old, dilapidated lighthouse on the beach. The Ewen Lighthouse was an under-maintained tourist attraction, and was scheduled to be demolished soon. "Experts have been able to say with full certainty that the Emerald is inside the monument. No attempts have been made to retrieve it, for they are still waiting for Sonic the Hedgehog." _I wish that they'd stop broadcasting a Chaos Emerald's location, _Knuckles thought._ It's like they're __**trying**__ to get Eggman to come._ _And I hardly doubt Sonic would want to help, the lighthouse is on the shore. That big baby wouldn't go near water._ _Maybe Tyler would want to come?_

...

"Of course I want to come!" Tyler said.

...

To the west of Westopolis was the beach. Since Amy's house was on the east side, it took Tyler and Knuckles an hour to get there. The Ewen Lighthouse, Tyler thought, should be demolished immediately. The peeling white plaster tower looked ready to collapse into the sandy shore. The revolving light at the top of the tower probably didn't work anymore, and was covered in bird nests.

"Is this the place? I thought it was some sort of tourist attraction." Tyler asked.

"It is, but it's not taken care of very well." said Knuckles. _Well, duh!_ "I'm gonna bet that the Emerald is at the top," he said. They went in. The inside of the lighthouse was more depressing than the outside. Green puddles of water and bird droppings covered the floor. The only light came from holes in the rotten roof. The walls might have been painted once, but had long since flaked off. A mildewy, spiral staircase led to the top.

"There's no elevator, and even if there was, I wouldn't trust it," Knuckles said. "We'll need to be careful going up the steps." He went first, testing each step's strength before putting his full weight on it. They creaked audibly, but didn't give away under them. There were landings every so often, and each one had a different informational plaque affixed to the wall. Tyler couldn't read them, they were too filthy, and he didn't care to clean them.

After a few minutes, they reached the ceiling, which formed the floor for the above level. A ladder led through a trapdoor, allowing them to climb up. The highest room was chilly and damp. In the center was an enormous spotlight, but it's lightbulb had been smashed. Several of the room's giant windows were also broken.

"Well, we're here," Tyler said. "Where's the Emerald?"

"Let's start looking," Knuckles said. They searched under fallen beams from the roof, under piles of trash from past visitors, but to no avail. "I found it!" Knuckles said at last. He was looking into the giant spotlight. "The Emerald's in here." he reached down and pulled it out. "This must have been what broke the light." The Emerald wasn't green, like Tyler had expected. Instead it was a dazzling blue. Glints of light shot off of it, adorning the walls with little spots of blue color. _Like a disco ball,_ Tyler thought.

"Can I hold it?" Tyler asked.

"Sure. Here," he started to hand it over, but a noise from below caught their attention.

...

They looked out one of the windows to the bottom. _Oh no,_ Knuckles realized, _It's Eggman._ His robot for today was a large green gorilla. _I never understood why he used animals._ It sat at the base of the lighthouse, looking up at them. The gorilla mecha wasn't as large as the lobster, it was about the size of a pick up truck. It also seemed to be remote controlled.

"Well, what do we have here?" Eggman's voice came from the robot. "Knuckles, and someone else? I don't believe we've had the pleasure of meeting. Allow me to introduce myself; I am Doctor Eggman, and–"

"I'm perfectly aware of who **you** are!" Tyler shouted. "What do you want?"

"Well, that was rude." Eggman's voice said. "I'm not very fond of rude people, but if you'd be so kind as to hand over that Chaos Emerald, I'd be more than happy to overlook it."

"Not a chance." Knuckles said.

"Very well,"The giant ape began to slowly climb up the tower. Knuckles set the Emerald on the floor and headed downstairs.

"Stay here," he told Tyler. As the robot climbed the walls on the outside, Knuckles felt it through the inside. _Wait for it...wait for it..._then, when the robot was right on the other side of the plaster, he punched through, striking it. It fell to the ground with a **flump** sound. Unfortunately, it landed on the soft sand instead of the concrete sidewalk at the front of the tower. The mecha tried climbing again, but Knuckles knocked it down a second time.

"I may be down, but I'm not out!" Eggman's voice said. Instead of climbing, he decided to break in. The gorilla burst through the entrance, causing the entire lighthouse to shudder. "I think I'll take the stairs," it said. _Oh no you don't!_ Knuckles swung at it, but the robot caught his hand, and threw him. Knuckles somersaulted in the air and pushed off of the opposite wall with his feet, springing himself towards the gorilla. He punched it hard in the stomach, pushing it against the wall and holding it there, hammering it over and over with his fists. The mecha took enough of a beating and swung its fist at back. As he ducked, the gorilla came in with its other fist and connected it with the side of Knuckles' head, sending him across the room again. As Knuckles stood back up, the mecha jumped up against the wall and began to climb. As it ascended, it broke the staircase behind it, preventing Knuckles from following him that way. Knuckles could climb walls too, but not as fast. The gorilla would make it to Tyler first.

...

_Knuckles won't be able to beat that thing here,_ Tyler thought. _Maybe in a more open area, but not in a moldy lighthouse._ The gorilla would probably make it to the top before too long, so he needed to think fast. _There are metal beams inside the walls_..._they're under the plaster..._ As he mentally observed the metal supports, the Chaos Emerald glowed. The harder Tyler concentrated, the brighter it became. He tried to pick it up earlier, but it started sparking. _I don't have time to think about that._ _Focus._

_(plaster rotten wood metal beams rebar plaster bird dung plaster metal rebar)_

Suddenly, the gorilla crashed through the floor, knocking Tyler down.

"I'm glad we have the chance to meet face-to-face," Eggman's voice said. "I never had the chance to rebuke you for destroying my Lobster Mecha. But I'll let bygones be bygones if you **hand over that Emerald**."

"Fine, take it," Tyler said. He pointed to the far side of the room. "It's over there. I can't pick it up, it won't let me."

"Interesting," Eggman said. The robot trudged over and picked up the gem. Tyler knew Eggman would hurt him once he had the Emerald. He was right. The robot spun around and lunged towards him. Tyler dodged it by rolling out of the way. The gorilla rammed into the wall as it missed. It turned to face him and grabbed him by his shirt before he could avoid it, lifting him up. _Uh oh._

"I was watching the most peculiar video the other day," Eggman's voice said through the speakers mounted into the gorilla's head. "I was fighting that blasted blue Hedgehog that you've become so familiar with. But right when I was about to dispatch him, you hurled a streetlight through my wonderful plasma cannon. Now, normally I'd be very angry with you, but then I had an idea: why not put such a brilliant telekinetic gift to use?"

"To use?" _I don't like where this is going. Think fast. _

"Of course," Eggman continued. "Consider this a personal invitation to my base. Transportation will be provided, of course."

"I'm afraid I'll have to decline."

_Wrench._ The metal supporters burst from the wall. Like snakes, they twisted and bent, binding Eggman's machine. One metal rod in particular dug into the robot's arm, forcing him to release the grip on Tyler's hoodie.

"What are you doing, you wretched little ingrate!" he shouted at him.

"I'm destroying my second robot." Tyler said calmly as the gorilla was pulled back against the wall.

Exhausted from the mental effort it took to bend six-inch-thick rebar, Tyler would've been perfectly content with sleeping right where he was. He slumped over onto the floor and nearly dozed off, despite the screeching sounds of metal-on-metal as Eggman's robot tried to free itself. Adding to the noise was another unusual sound; **thunk**-click, **thunk**-click, **thunk**-click, growing progressively louder and louder. Worried that it might be another robot, Tyler crawled to the jagged hole that the gorilla had created and looked down. Knuckles was climbing up, digging his namesake clawlike knuckles into the wall for a grip. Tyler relaxed a bit and crawled back against the wall, resting his back against the window.

"Hey, you alright up here?" Knuckles asked, pulling himself out of the hole.

"Yep. I'm good." Tyler said. "Eggman's robot isn't doing so well. He's a little tied up at the moment." He yawned, not caring if his pun was funny or not.

"I can see that," Knuckles said, walking up slowly towards the gorilla, but not before he scooped the blue Chaos Emerald into his hand.

"YOU LET MY MECHA OUT OF HERE THIS INSTANT, YOU PATHETIC LITTLE RODENT--" Eggman roared, but his voice was cut off as Knuckles delivered a swift, powerful punch to the robot's torso with the same hand that held the Emerald. A blue shockwave burst out of the Emerald, causing the robot to nearly turn inside out from the explosion. The plaster around the mecha cracked and broke free, throwing Eggman's robot off the lighthouse, where it landed quite a ways away in a tidepool.

"Wow." Was all Tyler could say.

...

Eggman's defeat was bittersweet for him. On one hand, his Gorilla Mecha was destroyed. On the other hand, he had seen another display of Tyler's telekinesis. _If at first you don't succeed,_ _try, try again._

* * *

**REVIEW!**


	5. Snare

_AUTHOR'S NOTE: This has been betaread by Loor101._

Snare

"I can't believe I missed that!" Sonic said. They were at the register of a coffee shop, buying breakfast. "You destroyed another mecha without even touching it?"

"I keep telling you," Tyler said, rolling his eyes. "I fixed it to a wall, and Knuckles punched it off the lighthouse. It was a joint effort. Maybe if you weren't off running, Knuckles and I could've asked you to come, too." He handed some money to the girl at the counter.

"Are you sure he wouldn't want a cookie?" the cashier asked Sonic.

"Huh?" he said.

"Your little friend." she explained, motioning towards Tyler. _Little? I'm almost old enough to be your boyfriend!_ Tyler thought. Sonic pretended that Tyler really was a little kid to humor the ignorant cashier.

"Of course! Wouldn't you _love_ that, Tyler? A nice big cookie. Chocolate fudge chips, please." _(Sonic, if there weren't witnesses, you'd be sooo dead right now!_) They bought their coffee (and cookie) and left.

"You forgot to say 'thank you' to the nice lady, Tyler!" Sonic teased. Tyler mentally tripped him, but held his coffee so it wouldn't scald him. "Lighten up," he said.

"Anyway," Tyler continued, changing the subject, "Eggman seemed really intent on taking me to his base, whether I was willing or not. That really bothers me; I don't wanna walk around with an invisible target on my forehead. What would he do to me once he had me?"

"Relax, I'll just keep a closer eye on you," Sonic said. "It won't be easy for Eggman to nab you with me around. Are you gonna eat that?" he said, pointing to the cookie.

"Nope. Catch!" Tyler threw it like a frisbee across the street. Sonic sped off, caught it, and returned before Tyler realized what had happened. He took a bite.

"Not enough chocolate chips," he said.

Tyler was unnerved by Sonic's breezy attitude. It was all well for him; he'd dealt with Eggman for years now, and could run faster than the speed of sound. All Tyler could do at the moment was throw or bend things without touching them.

...

Sonic brought Tyler back to Amy's house _(I wish he'd let me walk for myself for once. I'm not an infant)_. A note was pinned to Amy's door, saying that she was out shopping for silverware, since Tyler had accidentally bent all of her spoons the other night. The door was unlocked, so they let themselves in.

Sonic launched himself onto Amy's couch. Tyler went into the kitchen and tossed his paper coffee cup into a wastebasket.

"Are you done with your coffee?" Tyler asked.

"Yep."

"'Kay. I got it." Sonic's cup flew out of his hand and slammed into the garbage can with more force than necessary. _Darn it, keep it under control!_ Tyler berated himself. He heard the whine of the television as Sonic turned it on.

"Cool, U.F.'s Most Extreme Car Chases is on!" Sonic said. "Oh, wait, never mind. It's almost over."

"Too bad," Tyler said, sitting down on the couch next to him. The noontime news started with it's usual 'Good Afternoon Westopolis' song, showcasing the news stations' prominent reporters. After the final chords ended, the screen faded into the news room with a female reporter at the desk.

"Good afternoon Westopolis, I'm Lexi Gold, coming at you live from the newsroom." Up in the right corner of the screen was a picture. Like many news shows, the current topic had a small picture in the corner. This picture interested Sonic, Tyler could tell, because he gasped and leaned forward.

"What?" Tyler asked.

"You'll see." he replied. The picture was a black square, with seven glittery gems aligned in a circle around the words 'Chaos Alert.'

"A Chaos Alert was issued by the authorities earlier today," Lexi Gold said. "Strong electromagnetic waves were emanating from the now-defunct Westopolis Harbor, and it is most likely a Chaos Emerald causing the disturbance." The screen showed a helicopter camera's point of view over a dirty, polluted shipping dock. "Civilians are asked not to come anywhere near the docks until G.U.N. can arrive. This is all the information we have at this time, but we'll keep you posted. And now for the weather—"

"Another Chaos Emerald." Sonic said. "That's two we've found in a week."

"Is that unusual?" Tyler asked.

"Kinda." He paused a moment, then stood up. "You'd better go get your jacket."

"Why? It's not like we're going anywhere..." Tyler looked at him, then understood. "No. I'm not getting that Emerald. You can get it yourself, but I'm not coming."

"Come on! There are only seven, and it's a miracle that we've found another one this fast!" Sonic whined.

"No. Eggman's still out there somewhere. I'm sure he knows where the Emerald is, too. I'm not coming."

"You're not chicken, are ya?"

"No." Tyler threw a sofa pillow at him. It wasn't entirely a lie; he wasn't scared of Eggman himself, just his robots.

"Then why don'tcha come?"

"Because, unless you can guarantee that nothing bad will happen, I won't be going."

"Of course nothing will happen. Hedgehog's Honor!" he said, saluting.

"That's not even a real Honor, is it?"

"Heh, no way."

"You put up a very convincing argument." Tyler said sarcastically.

"Do you really think he'd be able to hurt you with me around? Besides, you aren't completely defenseless. If we leave now, we might just miss him altogether."

"Well...okay, but what if-"

"Let's go!"

...

They stopped in an old, run-down part of Westopolis near the ocean. The buildings were brown and rusty and covered in graffiti. Cracks ran through the streets and sidewalks where there wasn't litter or cigarette butts. It was the part of town gangs or mobsters would occupy. Sonic set Tyler down.

"It's over here," he said, heading down an alley.

"I've never been to this part of the city. This place is a mess." Tyler slipped in a puddle, accidentally splashing a garbage bag against a wall. A group of rats scurried out of it. The alley led to a shipping yard that looked out into the polluted waters offshore. Giant metal shipping boxes, each one colored bright orange, blue, or brown sat next to or on top of each other, forming a sort of maze. After navigating through the boxes a short way, they made it to a small storage warehouse of sorts.

"The Emerald should be in there." said Sonic.

The inside of the warehouse was mostly empty. There were some crates against the walls, and a metal catwalk that hung from the ceiling. _The Chaos Emerald must be up there._

"Well, do you want to get it, or should I?" Sonic asked.

"You get it; I'm not big on heights."

"You seemed to get through that lighthouse fiasco pretty well,"

"That was different, there was some security."

"Whatever." He sped up the stairs affixed to the far wall and made it to the Emerald, but instead of looking triumphant, he looked confused.

"What's wrong?" Tyler yelled up to him.

"This isn't an Emerald," he said. "It's some sort of... broadcaster." He held up what appeared to be small black box with multicolored lights. What would a broadcaster be doing here? The only broadcasted waves were made by a Chaos Emerald...unless... The realization sent a shock through his system.

"Sonic, have we been set up?"

"What? What do you mean?" he asked. His worried look only added to Tyler's growing panic.

"What if someone knew we'd hear about a Chaos Emerald found in a remote, secluded location? What if that someone knew we'd come here? This...this isn't a trap, right?"

Before Sonic could answer, part of the roof caved in, showering the concrete floor with rubble and dust. Through the hole came Eggman, riding in some sort chair encased in a metal pod. Behind him came several humanoid robots, each one eight feet tall and armed. More of the same robots came in through the warehouse's door.

"I'm glad that at least **one** of you can put two-and-two together. But I'm afraid you've seen through my ruse a little too late." Eggman said smugly. "It's a nice feeling to see such a simple plan go so well. And it can be even simpler if you just give yourself up without a struggle."

"Not gonna happen." Tyler said.

"Very well." Eggman pushed a button in his console, and the robots attacked, their metal arms opening like scissors and morphing into guns.

Sonic leapt from the catwalk and pounced on the robot nearest to Tyler, curling into a spiky ball and destroying it. Tyler glared at another robot and jerked his head, snapping its neck. Several robots fired at Sonic, but Tyler was able to slow down the bullets to the speed of thrown pebbles. Sonic herded a group of robots underneath the catwalk, and after several moments of concentration, Tyler unscrewed it off the ceiling, crushing anything underneath. More robots came from the hole in the roof and the entrance. Whenever one robot was destroyed, another was taking its place. Sonic wasn't tired (he was used to this), but Tyler's mental endurance was beginning to wane.

"Sonic," Tyler called out to him from across the room.

"Yeah?" he yelled back, grabbing a robot's arm and using it to fire at others.

"Let's move to a more open area." Tyler said as he bent another robot's wrists and ankles backwards.

"I have a better idea," Eggman said, surveying the brawl from above in his little floating pod. "Let's level the playing field, shall we?" He pressed another button, and small hummingbird-like robot detached itself from the bottom of the pod. It carried a dark, rubbery looking strip of fabric, laced with wires and circuits. It zoomed straight for Tyler, but he ducked. In response, Tyler attempted to crush the little flying machine using his mind, but nothing happened. The hummingbird swooped down again, and Tyler had to fall flat on the floor to avoid it. He tried mentally manipulating it again, but it had no effect.

The little flying bugger flew down in a confusing zig-zag shape instead, and collided with the side of Tyler's head. The rubber strip fastened around his neck like a collar, molding itself to his shape. Instantly, all of Tyler's telekinetic thought shut off. The collar's wires confused and derailed any mental power, completely disabling him. That was why he couldn't attack the flying robot; it was carrying the collar. He was very vulnerable now.

Two robots stalked toward him, this time with larger, thicker guns protruding from their arms. They fired some sort of meshy material at him, which he barely dodged. He picked up a fallen piece of a defeated robot's torso, which caught the bulk of their blasts. Tyler saw that they were shooting nets at him. Eggman really meant business.

...

Sonic knew something was up when the robots around Tyler stopped exploding of their own accord. Nothing seemed wrong with him; he could run and duck and dodge. But he saw the collar around his neck, and guessed that he had been handicapped. He ran across the warehouse, grabbed Tyler, and headed out the door.

More robots were waiting for them, and fired their weapons as they sprinted from the warehouse. Sonic veered away from them, into the maze of storage boxes, but the robots pursued them. They turned left and right, and even hit a few dead ends, but no matter which direction they went in, they were still followed. Every exit from the shipyard had been blocked off by robots.

"So, what's the deal with the thing around your neck?" Sonic asked Tyler.

"It's disabling me," he said as they turned another corner. "I can't do anything! I'm completely useless right now."

"It's not very attractive."

"You're telling me. I can't get it off." He tugged at the skin-tight silicone material to illustrate this.

"Couldn't we...hold on a sec," He jumped over a group of oncoming robots, then continued. "Couldn't we find something to cut it off with?"

"It's full of wires, you'd probably end up electrocuting yourse—CRAP!" Tyler was interrupted as Eggman and a new horde of robots blocked both ends of the narrow passage they were in. Sonic stopped running.

"Well, I think we've dragged this out long enough," Eggman said. "Tyler, it would be prudent to leave with me now, before you get covered in little Hedgehog bits." His robots aimed their weapons at Sonic, but Tyler didn't move. _Not good,_ Sonic thought. _How am I gonna get us outta here? _Unfortunately, Sonic didn't have time to think of an answer.

...

Many robots shot netting at once; one net hit Tyler, binding his arms together. All of the others nailed Sonic, wrapping all but his head in a black nylon cocoon. Two of the robots grasped Tyler and pulled him onto Eggman's pod, while the others aimed their guns at Sonic. However, he'd been in worse situations. Before he was pelted with bullets, Sonic rolled along the ground at high speeds, knocking over his would-be firing squad like bowling pins. Eggman realized that the Hedgehog wouldn't be beat today, and flew off with Tyler. Meanwhile, Sonic was able to roll log-style underneath the robots guarding the exits from the docks, who were now deactivated since Eggman had won.

Tyler tugged at his restraints, finally loosening them enough to get his arms free, where he set to work pulling at his neck brace.

"It won't come off," Eggman gloated. "Not without a key."

"And I can assumed that you have it, and you're not going to relinquish it to me?"

"Correct." Eggman sneered, annoyed that a small child had such an advanced vocabulary. "Now, let's return to my base. There's a new invention of mine I'm sure you'll be very interested in."

"I don't suppose I have a choice in the matter." Tyler said.

"I'm afraid not." The small aircraft zoomed off over the ocean, towards Eggman's island base.

...

Sonic rolled out into the street, back to the ghetto where he and Tyler had started. He found a broken bottle in the curb, and used it to saw away the net around him. He stood up slowly, his head spinning from rolling. Eventually, he could walk in a straight line, and ran towards Tails' house. He needed as much technology from him as possible if he was gonna get Tyler back. Then he groaned.

"Tyler's gonna kill me when we get back."

* * *

**REVIEW!**


	6. Division

Division

Sonic broke the news to everyone at Tails' house. They didn't take it well.

"HOW COULD YOU LET THIS HAPPEN?" Knuckles shouted at Sonic, punching him in the arm. "He specifically told you that he didn't want to go, but you took him anyway! And now look what's happened!"

"Look, I didn't know this would happen. No one did! We were set up!" Sonic countered.

"Sonic, this could be a big deal," Tails said. "Eggman recently stole some important equipment from G.U.N. He took a generator that runs on bioelectricity, among other things. Think about it; Tyler probably produces enough energy just by **thinking** to power half of Station Square."

"And since he stole the generator from G.U.N., who do you think they're gonna send to retrieve it all?" Amy continued.

"Shadow and Rouge." Sonic said.

"Exactly." Knuckles said. "Shadow might consider Tyler as one of Eggman's weapons. As powerful as Tyler might be, Shadow could...**hurt** him easily."

"Alright, alright, I got it. So what's the plan? Do we know where Tyler is?" Sonic said.

"We have a general idea." Tails said. "He's most likely in Eggman's island base, a short ways off of the coast." He pulled out a map of the coastline and pointed to a small green dot.

"We'll have to storm in, grab Tyler, and get out." Knuckles said. "It shouldn't be too hard; we do this kind of thing all the time."

"I'll get the necessary weapons and supplies." Tails said. He walked out of the room to his workshop.

"I hope Tyler's okay..." Amy said.

...

Tyler was actually quite fine, considering the problem he was in. As he was led down a sterile corridor in Eggman's base, he observed his surroundings. He wasn't restrained (other than his stupid neck brace), and he wasn't panicking. _Yet_. There were many doors in the corridors that they passed, but they were the kind that slid open when you inserted a key card in a slot. He also noticed some air vents near the ground, and wondered if they could be useful to his escape.

Eggman and the two robots that flanked Tyler on either side made it to the end of the passage in front of a larger sliding metal door. Eggman pushed his card into the slot, and it whooshed open. They walked into the main control room. It was circular, with big plasma screens on the wall opposite of them. Underneath the screens were controls and keyboards. In the center of the room was a small platform surrounded by a glass tube, which slid upward into the ceiling as they walked in. Eggman dismissed the robots from the room.

On the curved wall to the left was what stole Tyler's attention. Sitting on a pedestal behind a protective wall of glass was an ornate scepter. It looked like it was molded out of glass into the shape of a cylinder. The outside was decorated with detailed silver eagle wings and a bejewelled stopper. Inside of the cylinder was a wraith of writhing, twisting purple smoke. The smoke wasn't just smoke; it was alive. It watched Eggman come in with a bored attitude, but seemed to perk up when it noticed Tyler. It stared at him. Stared and watched. Tyler shivered.

Eggman didn't notice.

"This is the control room," Eggman said, "where you will be spending most of your time." He walked to the platform in the middle of the room. "This is a very special machine I was able to procure lately."

"By 'procure,' you mean 'steal.'" Tyler said. Eggman ignored him.

"It's a Bioelectric Coil Converter." Eggman said. "With the right type of biological source, I can harness the energy of an organism's electrical nervous system, and create power for my machines. The more...**energetic** the organism is, the more power it can produce."

He turned to Tyler to see if he had understood, but was disappointed when he saw he wasn't paying attention. He was staring at the scepter behind the transparent wall. Tyler knew that it was staring back at him, crouching, waiting to spring at him. He shivered again. Tyler imagined that if the scepter had a voice, it would be chuckling darkly now.

"I see you've noticed another item I acquired from G.U.N." Eggman said.

"What is it?"

"The Scepter of Darkness; a highly unstable chemical reaction contained in an heirloom of the royal family of Soleanna."

"What's it for?"

"It's a catalyst for my Bioelectric Coil Converter. You see, ten years ago the Soleanna government conducted tests on a nuclear fission and temporal space project. They dubbed it the 'Solaris Project,' after their sun god. They ran into an accident that released an unstable element, but they were able to contain it within the scepter. Even though it was contained, it was incredibly reactive, so G.U.N. took it away. I recovered it, and hope to recreate their experiment. With your help, of course." He smirked at him. Tyler walked around him with his arms crossed.

"There's something your not telling me. There's more to this Scepter than you're letting on." Tyler knew that the Scepter wasn't just some sort of radioactive malfunction of an experiment; it was much more sinister than that.

"True." Eggman said. "It **is** much more than that."

"Is it...inanimate?" Tyler probed.

"No."

"I thought not." The Scepter continued to stare at him, daring him to step closer. He tried to ignore it. "What is it, really?"

"Well..." Eggman began, walking to the keyboards and sitting down in a high backed chair, "Soleanna's sun god, Solaris, is comprised of two parts; a destructive fiery half, and a dark intelligent half. The experiment split the two apart, destroying Soleanna's palace in the process. The fire half has long since been extinguished, but the other still remains." Eggman finished.

"So why did you bring me here?" Tyler asked.

"Well, to recreate the experiment, I need a substitute for Solaris' other half. I thought you would be appropriate; you could manipulate molecules at the same frequency, and create massive amounts of energy."

"What would all of this accomplish?" Tyler demanded.

"An immense store of destructive power, with which could supercharge any weapon I choose. A toy squirt gun could become a plasma rifle, or a cannon could become a nuclear missile launcher. With this kind of power, I'll be able to dominate this world with ease. I'll even be able to eliminate that pesky Hedgehog and his irritating posse."

"There's no way I'd let you do that. I'm not doing anything." Tyler tried to look formidable with his arms crossed, but he ended up looking like a little kid who refuses to eat his vegetables.

"I'm afraid you don't have a choice in the matter." Eggman said, standing up and walking towards him. "You're in my control now, and soon enough, you will bring me a huge step closer to my goal of creating the Eggman Empire. Whether or not you do this willingly is up to you."

Eggman could try to be imposing and terrifying, but Tyler really just found him annoying. How could he find someone intimidating with a bright red waistcoat, a big pink nose, and a mustache twice the width of his head? Ronald McDonald was more frightening than he was. The only fear that Tyler associated with Eggman was his robot army and naturally tyrannical disposition; as ridiculous as he looked, there definitely was the supressed desire to hurt him.

Tyler didn't respond for a moment, but then abruptly pointed over Eggman's shoulder and yelled "Look! What's that?"

"What is what?" Eggman said in surprise, turning around. Tyler kicked him with all of his might in the shin, causing Eggman to jump up and down on one foot in pain. Tyler took this opportunity to push him over onto the ground. He quickly searched Eggman's pockets and found his key card, and ran to the door. He slid the card into the slot and fled from the room.

His footsteps echoed loudly on the metal floor as an alarm sounded overhead.

"PRISONER ESCAPING IN SECTOR ONE. PRISONER ESCAPING IN SECTOR ONE." the alarm repeated over and over.

Without thinking, he found an air duct grate set into the wall near the floor. He pulled it off and crawled into the square, reattaching the grate behind him. He crawled back as far as he dared and sat with his arms around his knees.

He was scared. He was scared and alone and vulnerable. Any second now, Eggman would find him, and undoubtedly punish him for escaping. Now, more than ever, did he wish his parents were here. His mom. His dad. His sister and brother. His dog. His school. His friends. His home. They were all gone, in an unreachable alternate universe. He was alone now.

...

Tails flew Sonic and Knuckles over Westopolis towards the ocean in the _X Tornado_, a high tech jet packed with missiles and firepower, and fast enough to break the sound barrier if necessary. The radar in the dashboard indicated how close they were to Eggman's island.

"Does everyone know the plan?" Tails asked. Sonic and Knuckles nodded.

"I'll distract Eggman and his machines inside of the base." Sonic recited.

"I'll find Tyler and get him outside to where you can land." said Knuckles.

"And I'll distract Eggman's other machines outside." Tails finished.

After several long minutes, the island loomed over the ocean. It was a small rock sticking out of the water, with Eggman's compound standing up from the bare ground, a group of concrete rectangles sqeezed together. Soon after they spotted it, missiles began firing from the rock, streaming towards the aircraft. The _X Tornado_ dodged some, and shot the others, blowing them up into flashed of flame in the air. The island continued to fire at them until they were very close. It stopped shooting missiles, and instead sent robot-flown jets. The jets fired smaller missiles, but Tails' piloted around them, loop-de-looped, and shot back, defeating them. He swung close to the island, and Sonic and Knuckles jumped out.

They landed several hundred yards from the entrance. Twenty foot tall robots guarded the entrance, and opened fire once they hit the ground. Sonic ducked, dodged, and wove around them before curling into a ball and boring right through them like a drill. Knuckles beat down the door, and they went inside. They ran down a narrow hallway, avoiding blasts from the laser guns mounted on the walls. Sonic jumped up and roundhouse kicked one, destroying it. Knuckles punched another one into the wall.

They made it to another large door, which Knuckles promptly busted through. It was Eggman's control room. To their left sat the Scepter of Darkness (but since neither Sonic nor Knuckles were telekinetic, they didn't feel any animosity emanating from it), and in front of them sat Eggman. He was leaning forward, holding an ice pack against his shin.

"Wouldn't knocking on the door have been a little more courteous?" he sneered.

"Where's Tyler?" Knuckles demanded.

"I quite honestly don't know. The brat managed to escape."

"Escape?" Sonic asked, "How?"

"Well, first he tricked me into turning around. Then he kicked me over onto the floor, stole my key, and ran off. He could be anywhere in the building." Eggman said. "I've sent searching robots to find him, but so far they've found nothing. But it's only a matter of time. Once he's returned, nothing will stop me from completing my plan."

"Not if we find him first." Sonic said. He nodded to Knuckles, who ran from the room.

"Oh, I see we have plan, do we?" Eggman said. "Well Sonic, since you don't seem to be busy, here's something to keep you occupied." He pushed a button on the keyboard, and a swarm of tank-like robots rolled in.

"Fun!" said Sonic.

...

Tyler felt the explosions in his hiding spot. The lights would flicker occasionally, and the grate over the air duct would rattle. He crawled over to it and peeked through the metal slats, and saw Knuckles sprinting down the hallway. _Finally!_ Tyler thought. He kicked the grate with his foot, but it was stuck. He kicked it again and again before it eventually popped off of the wall. By the time Tyler stumbled out of the hole and onto the floor, Knuckles was already gone. _Crap._

_Well, he couldn't have gotten far. I can catch up with him. _He ran down the hallway the direction Knuckles must have left. He heard footsteps ahead of him. Finally he hit a dead end with a door bashed open. He walked into a very large room. It was a factory room where Eggman created his robots. There were conveyor belts with heavy machines suspended over them to assemble various weapons and vehicles and mechas. Metal arms and hooks stuck out of the machines, prepared to create a new weapon at a moment's notice. Long rows of finished robots were lined up in front of the machines, but they were turned off.

"Knuckles?" Tyler called, his voice echoing.

"Tyler?" he replied. He ran out from behind a row and ran smack into him, knocking him over. "Where have you been?" he growled, helping Tyler up. "I've been running around everywhere looking for you!"

"I was hiding in an air vent, and I saw you run past me." he said.

"Nice. Tails gave me these shears to get that thing off your neck." He pulled out a sharp pair of shear-like wire cutters from one of his gloves, and handed it to Tyler.

"Thanks." Tyler said. He slipped one of the blades between his neck and the silicone fabric and cut it off. He threw the wire and rubber strip aside. He shuddered as he felt his telekinesis return to him, his mind suddenly becoming aware of all the shapes and objects around him.

_(metal jointed clawed create schematic technical metal design)_

"We need to leave soon." Knuckles said. "All of the robots in this room are going to activate any second to fight us off, and we can't beat them all."

"Who else is here?" Tyler asked.

"Sonic is around here somewhere, and Tails is outside flying around. Now come on, we have to go." He pulled Tyler's arm, but he didn't budge. "Come **on**," he repeated. He still didn't move. "This is serious! We really have to go!"

"No. We don't." Tyler said. He had an idea. Eggman had said that Tyler was powerful, right? **How **powerful? Tyler wanted to test it now, in a room full of robots he could destroy. If he could destroy this factory, or even the whole base, then Eggman wouldn't be able to bother them for a long time. He would destroy it all, one way or another. He let his mind divide. His conscious thought left him, and he drifted off into a trancelike stupor. A very dangerous stupor; his telekinesis was now unbound by emotion or rational thought. His pupils expanded wide past his irises. Tyler's vision and hearing finally faded away, and all that was left was a being of uncontrollable power. _Pissed off kid, coming through!_ was his last thought.

...

Knuckles knew that something was wrong with Tyler when the lights changed from their normal flourescent white to a dim red. He squinted through the scarlet gloom at Tyler's face, and was shocked to see that his eyes were wide open, and completely black. A high pitched, microphone-feedback whine sound buzzed from somewhere Knuckles couldn't see. Tyler slowly turned away from him to look at the legions of robots. There was a high pitched keening sound, like nails on a chalkboard, and the robots were thrown violently backward across the room. They fell row after row like dominoes, and stacked into huge piles. Suddenly, they all emitted bright sparks from their joints, and erupted into flame. The machines that hung over the conveyor belts fell off of the ceiling with tremendous crashes, leaving gaping holes above. Soon, the whole room was on fire. Tyler slowly stalked out of the room. Knuckles was about to follow him when he suddenly heard

_(burn burn burn burn burn burn burn burn burn burn)_.

Tyler was broadcasting his thoughts through the air, and Knuckles knew immediately that Tyler intended on destroying Eggman's entire base. He slowly walked behind him, keeping his distance. As Tyler walked, the lights overhead turned red, or simply exploded. The metal walls buckled and creased around him like they were made of cardboard. A stray robot spotted him from down the hall, and attempted to attack him when

_(burn burn burn destroy destroy _you are so dead_ destroy burn burn)_

it's wires burst from it's body. Tyler stopped walking and turned his head toward the wall. In the walls were several pipes; some held water, some held coolant fluid, but one in particular

_(o yes that will work o yes burn it)_

was full of flammable liquid. There was another high pitched keening sound, and the pipe popped out of the wall, spraying the liquid all over the floor and flooding it. Tyler didn't let the fluid touch Knuckles, however. It parted away from him, keeping him safe. The torrent of fluid flowed toward the fallen robot, which began to spark from it's severed wires. They had reached the end of the hall by this time. The door slammed open, and Tyler and Knuckles walked through. As soon as they did, the flammable liquid touched the sparking robot, and exploded.

...

Sonic beat down the last of the tank robots with a flourish. Eggman had escaped, taking the Scepter of Darkness with him while Sonic was fighting. _Oh well._ _I wonder if Knuckles found Tyler yet?_ A nearby explosion knocked him off of his feet.

"What just happened?" he said aloud. The door slammed open, and Tyler walked in with Knuckles in tow into the control room. Sonic heard Tyler's broadcast

_(burn burn burn _o look it's Sonic don't hurt him he's good burn everything else_ burn burn)_

and walked over to Knuckles.

"What's up with Tyler?" he asked.

"I don't know, just keep your distance. He just blew up an entire section of Eggman's base just now." Knuckles said, visibly shaken. Tyler turned his attention towards the computers. There was another high screech, and they erupted in a shower of glass and plastic. He pressed some self destruct buttons, destroying even more of Eggman's base. The explosions rocked the room around like an earthquake, nearly throwing Sonic and Knuckles to the floor. Bits of the roof fell in. Within minutes, nearly the entire island was covered in burning wreckage.

...

Tails had picked off the last remaining robots outside of the base with the _X_ _Tornado_'s machine guns. He swerved around back towards the island. No more robots were being deployed to fight him; he found that odd. _Why would Eggman give up now?_

As soon as he thought this, a section of the base crumbled down. Bursts of flame and smoke shot out of the cracks. Another part of the base collapsed with it, this time igniting the rest of the building on fire. The fire spread much too fast for it to be natural. As the flames licked up the sides of the building, it all fell down at once in a gigantic flaming heap of metal and concrete. Only one room was spared from the telekinetic fury, and Tails assumed that it was the room Sonic, Knuckles, and Tyler were in. He landed on the edge of the island, away from the fires, and waited patiently for them to come out.

...

Tyler's pupils began to shrink. He began breathing again, gulping in deep breaths. His heart was beating dangerously fast at over 200 beats per minute. His temperature had dropped to 94 degrees. The strain of his powers had taken a huge amount of energy from his body. He collapsed before he realized where he was. Sonic and Knuckles ran over to him and turned him over onto his back.

_(....................................?????????????......................!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)_

As Tyler's brain returned to normal, he felt **It**. The thing inside the Scepter. **It** was pleased. **It** liked the chaos and destruction Tyler had brought. **It** was both pleased and surprised, and hungry. So very hungry. **It** stared down at Tyler like a tiger would stare at a wounded animal. _Go away,_ Tyler thought. _Go away. Leave me alone._

"Tyler?" Sonic asked, snapping Tyler out of his coma.

"Huh? What?" he said, weakly. "What's up?"

"You're in the control room," Knuckles said. "We're still at Eggman's base."

Tyler shivered suddenly and violently. A single pane of glass left in a computer monitor cracked.

"Woah, calm down," Sonic said. "Let's get you out of here."

...

Meanwhile, hundreds of miles away on land, a black and red Hedgehog drummed his fingers impatiently on the steering wheel of his black Hummer. Normally he could be very patient, but he was dealing with humans, the most rash and indecisive species on the planet. They had told him that they would contact him half an hour ago. Any minute now, he would receive the orders to storm Eggman's island base. Any minute now. After several more minutes of waiting, a red light blinked on his console. He pushed a button, linking him with G.U.N.

"This is agent Shadow, reporting to G.U.N.," he said, masking his irritation.

"Agent Shadow, this is HQ," a commanding voice said through the Hummer's speakers. "We've decided to cancel your previous mission to Eggman's base. It was destroyed half an hour ago by an unidentified weapon. Eggman escaped with the Scepter of Darkness. Wait until further instructions."

"Understood." Shadow said. He ended the transmission.

* * *

**REVIEW!**


	7. Authoritative: Part One

Authoritative: Part One

Knuckles surveyed the plain from his perch on a large hill. The wide horizon of yellow-green grass waved in the wind like a fibrous lake. The planar expanse of grass swayed back and forth, unbroken except for the mile-wide asteroid of earth wedged into it. The colossal rock sat upon the field lopsidedly. Its bottom was rounded, its top was flat. The top was covered in lush jungle, with small mountains and waterfalls peeking over the foliage. Angel Island. It used to be his home. It also used to be **floating**. On the night Tyler had arrived, it plunged into the ground. The only thing that kept the Island afloat above the plain was the Master Emerald, but since its disappearance, Knuckles felt no reason to guard its empty pedestal. It only reminded him of his ineptitude.

He sighed, both from boredom and from self-doubt. He was supposed to defend the Master Emerald from anything. It was what he did best. But now that it was gone, what was he good at now? He was startled from his thoughts when several black helicopters juttered from the distance, their rotating blades snapping through the air. They flew to the Island and landed in its jungle. Interested, Knuckles jumped from his seat and rushed to the helicopters' landing. He found a path in the forest and followed it, taking him directly to the pyramidal shrine where the Master Emerald once lay. The choppers had landed in the small clearing adjacent to the pyramid. The initials G.U.N. were emblazoned on their sides in white letters. The men that had flown them had already disembarked, and were working by the time Knuckles arrived.

They set up large tents, the kind archaeologists use to cover up their machines while at a dig site. Underneath the tents were humming computers, their screens glowing with text. Next to the computers were fold-out tables stocked with handheld metal detectors and other sensors. The men themselves wore dark army uniforms with the G.U.N. logo across the front, sunglasses, and walkie-talkie headsets. Various men were walking around the pyramid, staring at the metal detectors in their hands. The closer they got to the pyramid, the louder their sensors vibrated and chirped. One of the agents noticed Knuckles and jogged over to him.

"Sorry, this area's closed off. G.U.N. business." he said, motioning for Knuckles to leave.

"I live here!" Knuckles retorted. "What's going on? Why are you trespassing in my home?"

"We have orders from our superiors to close off this area for research," the agent said. "We're investigating a Chaos Control shockwave released in the area. This really isn't the place for Animals at the time being." He turned away from him and started walking back toward the tents. Before Knuckles could deliver a swift punch to the back of the agent's head, he hastily turned back towards him. "Wait a second, you live here? Then you must be Knuckles the Echidna."

"Yeah, I am. Why?"

"We were actually going to try to find you first, but since you're already here, we need to ask you a few questions." He pushed a button in his headset to record the conversation. "Where were you on the night of the microburst?"

"The what?" Knuckles questioned.

"The intense storm that hit Westopolis several weeks ago."

"Oh, **that**." Knuckles muttered, crossing his arms. "Well, I was here on Angel Island. I was sitting on top of that pyramid," He pointed to the shrine. "The storm hit, and it pulled the Master Emerald off of its base. Since the Emerald is what makes this Island float, it fell down."

"Were you on the Island when it crashed?" the agent asked.

"No, I was in a plane. Tails the Fox's plane, actually, with Sonic the Hedgehog."

"So Sonic is involved in this event?"

"Sure, I guess." shrugged Knuckles.

"What happened next?"

"Well, after the Island fell, we heard that some Chaos Emeralds were floating around Westopolis, so we headed there. When we got there, we—" he stopped. Should he tell the agent about Tyler, and how he found him?

"What happened when you got there?" the agent pushed. **This** was, Knuckles believed, the piece of information the agent wanted the most.

"We...found a boy. He was hurt in the storm, and he needed help. So we helped him." he finished lamely.

"Where is that boy now?"

"I don't know." he looked out over the forest at the sun. "Wow, is the sun already that high? I need to get going now." He left the shrine and sprinted out to the plain. He would wait a few days before he would tell Sonic about the G.U.N. agents at the Island, knowing full well that he would be observed by them for a while. This could be trouble.

...

The agents plugged their scanners into the computers under the canopy of tents. The computers hummed and whirred a little bit before displaying rows of numbers. One of the agents contacted G.U.N. headquarters with his headset.

"Sir, we have collected the data at the Angel Island site." he said.

"What are the results?" an authoritative voice responded.

"The radiation etchings match the results from the remains of Eggman's island base. Whatever destroyed Eggman's base, we theorize, also removed the Master Emerald on the night of the storm, and later damaged Ewen Lighthouse."

"Did you find out what caused the destructive radiation?"

"We might've, sir. We have a lead."

"Who?"

"Sonic the Hedgehog and company, as we already knew, were on Angel Island and in Westopolis during the microburst. While in the city, they may have discovered an injured human _Procella Avius_, or someone like it."

"Good work, Agent LaRue. Send Agent Forrester and his team to find this _Avius_. He or she needs to be brought to HQ for questioning."

...

Amy decided that doing chores around the house was much easier now that Tyler was staying with her. All she had to do was fix lunch for the two of them while the vacuum hummed, the duster dusted, the windows washed, and the laundry tumbled in the washing machine, all at the same time. Tyler sat calmly on the couch as he mentally multitasked.

"Lunch is ready," she said.

"Coming," said Tyler. The vacuum put itself away in the closet along with the duster. He got up from the couch and sat down at Amy's table. She set out a triangular slice of a sandwich in front of him. They talked as they ate.

"What do you feel like doing today?" Amy asked.

"We haven't seen Tails in a few days," Tyler suggested. "What's he up to?"

"He's been holed up in his workshop, building a new plane," Amy said. "He's probably too busy to play with us."

"How about a walk? There's a path that leads to the woods behind your house."

"That could be fun."she said, taking a bite of her sandwich. "I'll grab some backpacks, and we can leave after lunch."

After they finished eating, Amy washed the plates in her sink while Tyler went to his room. He opened his small closet and pulled a black hoodie off of a hanger. He slipped it on over his green shirt. After he put his shoes on, he heard Amy's doorbell ring.

"Tyler, could you get that?" Amy called, "My hands are full."

"I got it," Tyler said. He walked to Amy's pink arched front door and opened it. Standing on the other side were four tall men. They all wore sunglasses, headset walkie-talkies, and black uniforms with the initials G.U.N. on the front. _They looked like secret agents from a spy movie,_ Tyler thought.

"—Can I help you?" Tyler asked.

"Yes, we're G.U.N. private investigators. We're researching the incidents that occurred on the night of the microburst. Is Sonic the Hedgehog here right now?"

Tyler shook his head. "No, he's not here. I'll let him know you came." As he spoke, one of the agents pulled out a picture from his front pocket. He held it at arms length to the left of Tyler's face. Tyler glanced at the photo, and saw this it was **his** face on it, taken by a satellite camera.

"This is him, sir. The _Procella Avius_." the agent with the photo said.

"I thought so," the first the agent said. "We'll need you to come with us to our station in Westopolis for questioning," he said. "It really shouldn't take that much time, we only need—" he was interrupted as the door slammed closed. Tyler backed up away from the door, keeping it closed with his thoughts as the G.U.N. men pounded on it.

"Open up!" one of them shouted. _What the crap is a Procella Avius? Is it a disease? Am I infected, and those men want to quarantine me? Or maybe it's a legal term: 'Procella Avius'–an illegal immigrant who must be destroyed.'_ Tyler pushed them away with his mind. The bumps against the door stopped, but the men started pounding again when they got back to their feet. Amy came into the room from the kitchen, drying her hands on a towel.

"What is going on?" she said, loudly enough to be heard over the agents.

"These guys in uniforms want to take me to their 'station,' to talk about the night I got sent here." Tyler said, his attention still focused on the door.

"Uniforms? Did they have G.U.N. on them?"

"Yeah."

Amy sighed. "Tyler, those are police officers. I'm sure they just want to ask you a few questions."

"I don't want to go with them." Tyler said. He released the pressure off of the door. "I don't know what to tell them; I'm not from here, I don't know how their laws or their ethics work. They can't jail someone for accidentally crossing into another dimension, can they?" He thought of the illegal immigrants in Arizona who had to be deported because they crossed the Mexican border. What if G.U.N. made him deport? Where would he go?

"Do you want me to go with you?" Amy asked.

"Would you?"

"Of course."

Tyler opened the door without approaching it. The agents stopped banging the door. Tyler and Amy walked over to them.

"Alright, I'll go with you guys." Tyler said. "But my friend needs to come with me."

"I don't know if we can allow that ," one of the agents said. Tyler looked at him, and his sunglasses popped off of his face. "Fine, she can come." he said, picking them off of the ground.

...

The G.U.N. agents drove them to the city in big black vans with their logo on the side. After navigating through the congested city streets for half and hour, the driver finally got irritated enough to turn on his flashing police light, clearing the traffic in front of them. They parked in front of an impressive, businesslike skyscraper. They got out of the van and walked through the giant pneumatic glass doors. The ornate lobby was large, with marble floors and pillars, and an indoor fountain. The agents formed a circle around Tyler and Amy and strode past the security desk, flashing their badges as they did so.

The agents led them to a group of gold-colored elevators. One of the men showed his badge to a sensor near the elevator button. The light over the doors blinked green, and opened. They stepped inside, and instead of the elevator moving up or down, it move **sideways**. The doors opened again, leading the group to a completely different environment. The room was large, like the lobby, but much dimmer. Long rows of computers glowed on long tables, with more G.U.N. agents in front of them. The walls was dominated by huge computer screens that displayed graphs and charts and maps. The agents didn't let Tyler and Amy stay in the room for long; they were herded to another door that led to a hallway. The hallway was bright with white lights, walls, and floor tiles. The doors however, were green. After passing several doors, the agents opened one of them and ushered Tyler and Amy inside.

"Stay here," one of them said. "Someone will be with you shortly." They left.

This was the most least impressive room of all; an interrogation room. It was medium sized and square, with a white table with two chairs in the middle. The walls were white like the hallway, except for one of them, which was a two-way mirror.

"I guess we should sit down," Tyler said, pulling out one of the chairs.

"I wonder who they'll send to talk to us," Amy wondered. She sat in the chair next to him.

"Who would they usually send?" Tyler asked.

"Beats me." They sat in silence for a moment. After many minutes, the door finally opened. A small assemblage of scientists came in, wearing white lab coats. One of them wore a blue military uniform. The man in blue was tall, with wide shoulders and short gray hair cut in a military style.

"Good afternoon," the blue man said.

"Hi," Tyler and Amy said simultaneously.

"You must be wondering why you're here." the man said. "You're not in trouble. We just wanted to ask you some questions. I'm the Commander of G.U.N." He held out his white-gloved hand. Tyler and Amy shook it. "These doctors behind me are the ones asking the questions, actually." he said. "This is Dr. Artus, Dr. Levis, Dr. Merito, and Dr. Comminor." He gestured to the lab coat-wearing people behind him. None of them were very noteworthy, save for Dr. Comminor. He was a thin man, with brownish-gray hair, thick glasses, and yellowish skin.

"What kind of questions will you be asking?" Amy asked the scientists. They didn't answer for a moment. They looked at one another before Dr. Levis said:

"Well, simple questions, such as 'Where are you from,' or 'How old are you.' Once we get passed that, we're going to ask more difficult questions."

"Such as?" Tyler asked. The doctors looked at each other again.

"We'd like to see some...demonstrations." Dr. Artus said.

"Demonstrations of what?" Tyler questioned, narrowing his eyes.

"I think we all know they're talking about," the Commander said. "We'd like to see you manipulate and change objects without touching them."

"Oh, is that all?" Tyler said. "How's this?" The table rose in the air like a balloon, rising high enough to touch the ceiling.

"That will be just fine," said he Commander, smugly.

...

Shadow the Hedgehog and Rouge the Bat looked out through the screen of snowy trees at Eggman's alpine base. The fortress of ice-encrusted metal blighted the otherwise beautiful nighttime tundra landscape. The base was surrounded by various robots, but they wouldn't be a problem. The two Animals darted out from the pine forest; Rouge flew, while Shadow blasted forward on his rocket skates. The robots opened fire on them, but they were too slow. Rouge kicked at them with her razor-sharp stiletto heels as Shadow blasted them with bursts of electrical Chaos energy from his hands. With the robots destroyed, they were free to scale the wall and break into the building.

The interior courtyard was dark, save for the bright circles of light that shone from the spotlights mounted above. They wove around them, narrowly avoiding detection as they made it to the main structure. There were two entrances, so they decided to split up.

...

The doctors ran many tests on Tyler. Some were physical, and some were mental. Dr. Artus showed Tyler ink blots, and asked him to bend and shape a lump of purple clay into a sculpture that represented the images. Nothing very challenging until Dr. Levis laid out several musical instruments on the small table, like violins and trumpets and harps.

"Here's something you should try," he said, taking the seat opposite of him.

"What do I do?"

"I want to see if you can play music, using solely your mind. If you can, the results will bring me very close to finishing my thesis."

"What's your thesis on?" Amy asked.

"'Music's Influence on the Human Consciousness, and Vice Versa.'"

Tyler focused on the violin. It was just like the instrument in his closet back home; he had taken violin classes in the 5th grade. It tentatively wobbled off of the table into the air, its bow following with it. First, nothing happened. Then the bow began sawing away at the strings, producing a horrible sound, like a cat being struck by a mallet. He stopped and almost dropped the violin in surprise, but concentrated harder. He flipped through his memories, searching for a simple song to play. He couldn't think of one. Instead, he began humming Paramore's _'Hallelujah'_. His body began swaying to his internal tempo. The violin began to sway with him. The bow cleanly slipped back and forth over the strings, reproducing the music in his head. It wasn't perfect, but Dr. Levis clapped his hands in amazement along with the other doctors, except for Dr. Comminor.

Dr. Merito placed several metal cubes on the table after Dr. Levis was finished. Each black cube was of a different weight and size. Tyler was asked to stack them in towers, rows, and other shapes. He did so, forming structures that would've toppled over had he not held on to them with his mind. Throughout the exercises, the scientists asked him many questions (Where are you from? Are your parents also telekinetic? Are your siblings? How exactly did you get here?) Tyler answered their queries to his best ability. None of the tests were more difficult than the music challenge. All of the doctors looked pleased and amazed, except for Dr. Comminor, who looked a little surly, as if Tyler's successes were irritating him.

"You'll find my test to be a little more intimidating," he said to Tyler.

"I'm up for anything," Tyler responded.

"I hope so," he said, cooly. "Please follow me." He led Tyler, Amy, and the others back to the hallway. They walked a long ways before they reached Comminor's room. The room was divided in half by a transparent wall. One half of the room was dark, with computer monitors and screens. The other half was a perfect replica of a normal family living room. There was a nondescript beige carpet, a couch with some chairs, a media center, coffee table, and an armoire. There were pictures of random people hanging on the walls, and every shelf and side table was decorated with knickknacks and decorative candles.

"Here is my test," Comminor said to Tyler. "Behind this plexiglass wall is a model of a typical living room." He pressed a button under one of the monitors, and the transparent wall slid upwards into the ceiling.

"I want you to destroy everything in that half of the room," he said. "Use any means necessary to decimate every object." He took Tyler by the shoulder and walked him into the false living room. He snapped a heart rate bracelet onto Tyler's wrist and stepped back into the computer side, pressing the button again to lower the plexiglass barrier.

"Decimate everything?" Tyler asked, his voice muffled through the wall.

"Everything," Comminor said.

"Alright," Tyler said. He closed his eyes. He felt his mind drift away from his body, like it had done when he destroyed Eggman's base. His pupils expanded again, turning Tyler into a living bomb. The lamps in the room flickered, turning from their normal yellow glow to a harsh red light. A pitchy, electronic sound buzzed around the room. Amy shuddered; she had never seen Tyler like this before. There was a screeching sound, and the pictures on the walls erupted in flames. The shelves were knocked down, their contents spilling everywhere. The media center exploded, sending the television and DVD player careening across the room. The couch spiraled into the air, twisting and wringing itself out like a dish towel, tearing into shreds of fluff and springs. The carpet peeled back and also caught fire. The computer monitors beeped in warning, indicating that Tyler's heart rate was much too fast. Within the space of forty-eight seconds, the room was ablaze, with Tyler standing rigid in the middle. The scientists began to protest, urging Comminor to abort the test. He pushed another button, and jets of fire extinguishing foam frothed into the living room, extinguishing the flames. The cold foam awoke Tyler from his trance. He swayed for a moment, then collapsed in a heap as the plexiglass ascended into the ceiling. Amy and the other doctors huddled around him.

"Commander, could I speak with you outside?" Comminor asked.

"Now?" he said, anxiously glancing over at the group of worried doctors.

"Yes, now." They left the room and shut the door behind them. "This is exactly what I was afraid of," Comminor said, turning to face the Commander. "This boy is much too dangerous to be left unattended. I suggest we sedate him immediately, and send him to the Biotech labs for analysis."

"Doctor, you are overreacting," the barked the Commander. "This boy may be powerful, but he's not a threat to us. You've seen how he acts and talks; he's very mature for his age. Plus, he consorts with Sonic the Hedgehog, of all people!"

"Don't you understand?" Comminor flung back, "He's a ticking time bomb of mental destruction! A simple tantrum he throws could flatten an entire town! Therefore, it would be prudent to keep him here. I'll apply the sedative." He turned back towards the door, but the Commander grabbed his arm.

"I'm ordering you not to harm him." the Commander growled. "Never in our history have we come across a _Procella Avius_ that wished to harm others. He may not be an enemy now, but if he learns that you tried to capture him, he may turn against us. If you so much as **look** at him the wrong way, you're dismissed from G.U.N. Do you understand?"

Comminor glared at him. "Yes sir."

...

Shadow skated down the dark hallway. His black fur blended in with gloomy passage, helping him hide from the security cameras, with their tiny green lights blinking in the dimness. He blasted down a door and entered it. Nothing important was in there; only a group of robots. They spotted him and armed themselves, their metal arms folding back into guns. He quickly cut them down with Chaos blasts. He sped back into the hall and found another door. Still, only robots. He lazily launched a beam of Chaos energy at the assailants, making the most of an otherwise boring mission. _I doubt Rouge has found anything either,_ Shadow thought condescendingly. _She probably saw something shiny and got distracted._ His mission was simple enough: find the Scepter of Darkness that Eggman had stolen from G.U.N. He would've retrieved it earlier had Eggman's island base not exploded for no apparent reason. _Sonic probably had something to do with it. That idiot probably leaned on the self-destruct button by accident. He could've saved me a lot of time had he minded his own business._ Shadow's wrist communicator buzzed. He answered it.

"What?"

"I found it," Rouge said, gloatingly. "I told you I would."

"Save your victory dance for later" he grumbled. "Where are you?"

"Relax. I'm in the containment room, near the entrance that I took when we split."

"Fine. I'm on my way." He ended the transmission and skated back to the courtyard. He reentered the base through Rouge's route. Sure enough, Rouge was standing outside of the door in the second hallway.

"What took you so long—"

"Do you have it?" he interrupted.

"Yeesh, yes, I have it." she said, rolling her eyes. She pulled out the Scepter and waved it in front of him. He barely glanced at it and turned around to the exit.

"Let's go."

"Well, aren't we just a little ray of sunshine tonight?" Rouge muttered.

They fought past another armada of robots, this time larger than the last. Rouge kicked out at them, spearing and slashing with her heels. Shadow leapt at them, grabbing two robots' heads and slamming them together. The rest he dealt devastating blows to their armor with his Chaos spears. They traversed the high wall surrounding the base and sprinted back into the forest, spraying flurries of snow in their wake. Eggman's fortress had only just begun to sound its alarm, several minutes too late.

"Let's get back to HQ," Shadow said as they climbed into his black SUV. The vehicle shot out of the forest towards the valley where Westopolis lay twinkling.

* * *

**REVIEW!**


	8. Authoritative: Part Two

Authoritative: Part Two

...

"Found it!" Tails cried, yanking a cylindrical metal gadget from a pile of discarded technology.

"'Bout time." Tyler said, wiping the oil off of his hands from rummaging through a bin of unused car parts. Tails had come to a technological pawn shop in downtown Westopolis to ferret around for useful parts for his new aircraft. Before he had left, Tyler had asked to see the plane that that he was constructing. When Tails told him that he was searching for purposive materials in the city, Tyler decided to come with him to help.

The pawn shop was a small, dingy little store full of shelves and racks of useless-looking scrap metal. The whole shop seemed suspicious and borderlining illegal. To Tails however, the useless scraps were a trove of free materials.

"Alright, we found the phalerae extension," he Tails said, bouncing the cylinder between his hands as he spoke. "Now we need an aptus cap, and we can leave."

"Cool. What does it look like?"

"It kinda looks like a silver mushroom."

"Gotcha." Tyler turned around to another shelf and foraged around for it. Tails combed his hands through a bin of pipes and circuit boards, streaking his white gloves with more oil. His hand felt the smooth dome of the aptus cap, and he tugged it out of the pile.

"Found it!" he said again.

"Darn, I thought I got it." Tyler said, looking irkedly at the item he had pulled out.

"Nope, that's a lightbulb."

"Well, yeah, but it's mushroom shaped!"

"This is why you don't build planes." Tails said with a laugh. They brough their piles of scraps to the seedy-looking cashier, who placed them in seperate bags. They left the dirty shop and walked out into the cool, clear night, hoping the purge the smell of suspicious technology and cigarette smoke from their lungs.

"Alright, let's get going," Tails said, his double tails flicking back and forth in anticipation of his new project. The headed down the sidewalk to cut through a small park. The lights had been shut down for the evening, casting the trees and walkways of the esplanade in a darker light.

A gang of older boys comprised of tough looking Hippos, Crocodiles, and regular humans ran out of the park, knocking over garbage cans and park benches. They rudely bumped into Tyler as they went past, knocking him over.

"Hey, watch where you're walking!" a Crocodile yelled at him.

"Sorry," Tyler mumbled, looking away from them as he stood up.

"---dumb kid." a Hippo muttered as they walked away. One of the humans purposefully elbowed him as he past.

Tails glared after them. "What was up with that?" he asked Tyler.

"Yeah, I know. What a bunch of morons."

"No, not **that**. You just let them bump into you. Since when do you let people treat you like that?"

"I just get nervous around older people. It's not a big deal." Tyler said.

"Whatever! You aren't afraid of Eggman, but you let idiots like that push you around?"

"It's a long story," Tyler said. He really didn't feel like talking about this.

"We've got time." _Why won't he drop it? It's not a big deal._

Tyler sighed. "Fine, I'll make it brief: I'm the oldest kid in my family. I'm older than all of my siblings and cousins. I've never been around older people other than adults, so I get really shy around them. I also got bullied at school by the older grades, so I learned that shutting up when you're near them gives you a better chance at them leaving you alone." He rattled off his explanation like it was a grocery list.

"That's it? Couldn't you have just blown them up, or thrown them, or something?"

"I didn't have any powers like that back home." Tyler said. Then he paused. "If I couldn't use my powers back home, then why can I do it now?"

Tails shrugged. They kept walking until they neared the sounds and smells of a brightly lit shopping district.

The glow of the oncoming boutiques prompted Tyler into asking, "Why does it bother you that I didn't stand up for myself?"

Tails thought for a moment, and then said "Before I met Sonic, I was bullied constantly by the other Animals. They thought it was hilarious to tie my tails together, or stick out their feet to trip me, and etcetera. I didn't have the confidence or the strength to fight back until Sonic came around. I learned from him that I don't have to take their teasing, and if I show them that I'm better than that, they'll leave me alone. Sonic gave me the confidence I have now to face Eggman like we do. Now whenever I see someone get bullied, it pokes at those memories."

"Sorry." _I can almost hear the dramatic violin music playing as Tails tells me about his troubled childhood,_ Tyler thought. "Thanks for bringing me here. It's not every day I can hunt down obsolete machinery in a questionable pawn shop in a city populated by humans and Animals."

"Maybe not, but I get a feeling you'll be doing **much** weirder things," Tails said, smiling at him.

"El-oh-el (lol)" Tyler chatspoke.

"Oh, not that again! You know I hate...what is that called?"

"Chatspeak, ftw!"

Tails laughed. "Stop, it's annoying. I can never understand what you're saying."

By now they had entered the shopping area, surrounded by glittery lights from fashionable display windows and the smell of pretzel and coffee shops.

"Hey! A model store!" Tails said, pointing out a hobby shop across the street. Tyler inwardly groaned; he detested models, they reminded him of elementary school dioramas. Just as Tails was about to cross the street, a black G.U.N. van screeched to a halt in front of them.

The window in the passenger seat rolled down. "Mr. Prower, we need to take your friend back to G.U.N., if you don't mind." the agent said.

"Why?" Tyler asked, miffed that the agent was worried that Tails 'minded' instead of him.

"According to Dr. Comminor, there've been significant errors in your tests." the agent explained. "It is imperative that you come with us right now."

_Yes! No model store!_ Tyler thought. "Okay, I'll go with you." he said. "I'll see you back at Amy's house?" Tyler asked, turning back to Tails.

"Well...okay. Try to be back soon." he glanced at the agents, unsure. The model store beckoned to him, and he forgot about his worry instantly.

Tyler handed Tails his bag of scrap metal and clambered inside the vehicle. The van took off with its police light flashing, speeding in the direction of the G.U.N. office building.

...

The black van parked against the curb in front of the skyscraper. The men quickly ushered Tyler out of his seat and into the building. They didn't bother to show their badges to the front desk as they hurried him to the elevators. While they waited for the elevator doors to open, Tyler asked

"What's the rush?"

"Dr. Comminor said that it was of the utmost importance that we bring you to him as quickly as possible."

"Did he say why?"

"No. He simply gave us our orders." The elevator doors opened, and they pushed him inside. They swiftly marched through the giant computer room and into the blindingly white hallway with green doors. Tyler was getting a cramp in his side from all of the speedwalking. The agents stopped in front of an unremarkable door as one of them knocked three times.

"Come in," a man inside announced. An agent opened the door and gestured for Tyler to go inside, but they didn't follow him in. He heard them close the door behind him as he looked at the room. It was a fancy study, with dark wood paneling and enormous bookcases around the walls. The elegant desk in front of him was covered in more books, along with papers and reading lamps. A nameplate on the desk said "Dr. Damien Comminor" in gold letters. Comminor himself was standing behind the desk, smiling at him. _He looks a little sick tonight, _Tyler thought. His skin was slightly yellower, and his bespectacled eyes were bloodshot. He still wore a white labcoat over his business suit.

"Good evening, Mr. Scrimmer," he said. "Please have a seat." he pointed to an armchair in front of his desk.

"Thanks," Tyler said as he sat down. _I forgot he knew my last name._

"I'm sorry you had to come to my office on such short notice, but I wouldn't be bothering you if it wasn't necessary." he said. He seemed to shake a little as he talked, like he was nervous.

"It's not a problem," Tyler said. "The agents told me that this was important."

"Oh, yes, it's very important. You've been put at a great risk when you came to this world." he said as he sat down in his own chair.

"Oh, don't I know it." Tyler said, rolling his eyes. "Eggman attacked my friends the first night I came here. Ever since then, he's been bothering me. I'm lucky I got away from him the last time I met him."

"On the very first night you came here, you discovered your psychokinetic abilities, correct?" Comminor asked.

"Yes, that's right. I couldn't do anything until I saw Eggman attack." Tyler paused; he had never really thought about how he figured out his powers. "It... it was like a dam broke, and all of these thoughts just rushed forth. From then on, I could move things."

Comminor nodded. "That's exactly as I thought you would describe it. You see, you're not the first _Procella Avius_ to be transported to this universe."

Tyler sat up in his chair. "I'm not? Who else has been here?"

"Oh, just some minor people from your world. Nobody that you could find in a history book, anyway. However, you do all have one thing in common; you all had a special ability that you used to avoid harm. But out of all of the _Aviuses_ that have arrived, your talent by far is the most pronounced."

"What could the others do? And what's a _Procella Avius_, exactly?"

"Well, all of the others had a tiny trick up their sleeve to avoid enemies. Some could dodge fast-moving objects, some could deflect projectiles, that sort of thing. _Procella Avius_, by definition, is a 'gifted traveler,' which is basically what you are. You are a stranger here, and you are **gifted**. All _Aviuses_ have had their powers since birth, but it is a recessive trait, stored deep within their subconscious. Only highly stressful situations could awaken your powers. If an _Avius_returns to their homeworld, then it is highly likely that their descendants will also become _Aviuses_ themselves, and travel to this dimension."

"That's incredible!" Tyler cried. "I could have ancestors that've already been here! My whole family could have powers, just like me!" He marveled at the thought. _And what's better is that past _Aviuses_ have returned to their home. That means I could too! And since other people in my family probably have powers, then maybe Mom and Dad will be a little more understanding once I explain it to them..._

"However, there is a catch," Comminor said.

"What catch?" His happy thoughts deflated like a balloon.

"Because you are not from this world, you are highly susceptible to our diseases. You have no immunity to them. Therefore, it is crucial that you are vaccinated." He pulled out a drawer and picked up a black fabric case. He unzipped it and took out a small bottle and a hypodermic needle.

"Vaccinated?" Tyler asked. He didn't like needles.

"Yes, you must be vaccinated immediately. A simple cold here could kill you!" He stuck the needle into the bottle's rubber cap and sucked out a dose of clear solution. He got up from his chair and walked to where Tyler was sitting. "May I?"

Tyler eyed the needle cautiously.

"...If you say I need it, then....okay."

Comminor took his arm and injected the medicine into his wrist. Tyler expected him to inject his upper arm instead, like his doctor back in Arizona usually did. He removed the needle and walked back over to his desk, placing it back in it's case. He sat down and stayed silent.

At first, Tyler felt nothing. Then his fingers and toes began tingling. He felt very lightheaded, like he had just inhaled tank's worth of laughing gas. He stood up, afraid that something was wrong. His knees began wobbling, so he grabbed the desk for support.

"What's going on?" he said, panicking. Comminor remained silent. "What are you doing?!" Tyler demanded.

"You've become much too dangerous for my liking." Commminor said in a monotone voice. "You're powers are much too advanced for you. Don't you realize what you are? You're a hazard, a disaster waiting to happen. You need to be stopped before you cause any damage."

"What did you do to me?" Tyler gasped. His breath was becoming ragged.

"Don't panic. It's just a simple paralysis solution. You'll be fine a few hours. But by then, you'll locked up in the Biotech labs, under heavy security. You'll be no problem then."

"I'm not a ha---hazz---hazard!" Tyler gasped.

"Even if you aren't dangerous, you're still a threat. There's more to the whole _Procella Avius_ phenomena than you know. Every time, **every time**, a new _Avius_ enters this world, there is always it's enemy, it's predator. That predator will try to find the _Avius_, because it is its metobiological source. I can't let you wander around this city, knowing that you will lure trouble wherever you go."

Tyler had heard enough; his limbs were becoming numb, and he needed to escape. He staggered back towards the door, but tripped. He knocked books off of a bookcase as he broke his fall. He tried to climb back up, but Comminor ran over to him and pinned him to the bookcase with his hands. Tyler knocked him back with his mind and made it back to his feet. He scrambled to the door, but Comminor once again tried to stop him. He grabbed Tyler around the waist and lifted him off of the ground. Tyler released a panicked shockwave of thought, throwing Comminor from him into a second bookcase, causing more books to fall. Tyler twisted the doorknob and flung himself into the hallway. As he did, he made Comminor's heavy desk fly across the room and flip up against the door, preventing the Doctor from pursuing him.

Tyler pulled himself up to his feet and lurched down the hall. He wanted to get as far away as possible before he was completely paralyzed. He made it to a sharp turn in the passage before his legs twitched, and then stopped. He fell to the floor again and tried to stand back up, but his legs remained motionless. He crudely swore as he crawled around the corner. A set of impressive looking silver doors barred his way. They were locked, but Tyler busted through them with a strong thought. He slammed the doors shut with his mind as he slid himself over to the center of the room. His arms twitched like his legs did, and stopped moving also. He swore again. _It was a smart move to take a break in here,_ he thought as he collapsed. Then he sighed. There was nothing left to do but wait for someone to find him. His stomach growled. _Great. I'm hungry, and I even have crackers in my pocket!_ He tried to reach for his food, but his arm didn't respond. It just laid there, numb, like the rest of his body. _Fantastic._

...

Shadow pulled into the parking garage across the street from the G.U.N. building. He didn't want to walk far to get to the headquarters, so he parked in a handicap space. Rouge opened the door and climbed out, carrying the backpack that contained the Scepter of Darkness. _What a ridiculous __name,_ Shadow thought. _The Scepter of Darkness? That's pretty dramatic for a paperweight. _Had Shadow not been so strapped for cash, he never would've agreed to be part of the mission. They ignored the receptionist at the lobby and went into the elevator.

"Here," Rouge said as she handed the Scepter to Shadow. "You're the one that knows where this goes. I need to talk to the Commander about my raise."

"Fine."

The elevator doors opened up into the main computer room. Shadow immediately left Rouge and strode over to the white hallway. All he had to do now was place the Scepter in its storage container down the hall, and he'd return to the Commander to get his pay for another successful mission. He decided to pick up the pace and skate down the hall. The green doors and white walls became a blur as he sped past them, and he noticed the surprising lack of security men guarding the hall. He turned the corner and and approached the giant metal doors to the containment room. He stopped, stunned, and realized he couldn't walk closer to it. He tried again. He was still too far from the doors to open them. He reached out, but his gloved hand met a pliable resistance in the air. It was as if an invisible mattress was surrounding the door, barring his entrance.

"I don't have time for this." he growled. He pushed against the resistance. It buckled, but it refused to leave. _Fine._ He summoned a small amount of Chaos energy into his palm and placed it against the invisible wall. His energy burned through the barrier, finally allowing him to enter.

The room was medium sized and circular, with pedestals set into alcoves around the walls. All of them held supernatural trinkets and ornaments, and the one empty pedestal in the center was meant for the Scepter. He saw a bundle of clothes lying on the floor. No, wait. It was a person. A small boy, asleep, spread-eagled on his back. Shadow walked past him and placed the Scepter in its spot. As he did, a plexiglass tube descended over the pedestal, encapsulating it. He turned back towards the boy and tried to walk over to him. He immediately recoiled as he hit a much stronger barrier than the one around the door. The boy didn't want anyone near him. It didn't concern Shadow, so he left.

Now that the Scepter was in its place, he didn't feel the need to rush down the bright corridor, so he walked. As he passed one of the last doors, he heard a dull scraping, and then a heavy thud. Another scraping noise, then another thud. He stopped to see what the person in Dr. Comminor's room was doing. Or maybe it was Comminor himself, rearranging the furniture in his office. Or not. He didn't care. He was about to leave when the door flew open, leaving a small dent in the wall where it struck. Comminor staggered from the room, completely out of breath.

"Is there a problem?" Shadow asked. _If there is, I could make some more money off of it._

"Yes, there's a horrible problem," Comminor wheezed as he rubbed his sore shoulder. Shadow waited for him to catch his breath. "There's a dangerous test subject loose in the building. He attacked me in my office as I tried to sedate him; apparently my solution wasn't as potent as I would've hoped. I need to find him immediately."

Shadow looked behind the Doctor into his office. Books were scattered everywhere, and his writing desk was flipped upside down on the floor."What does he look like?"

Comminor thought for a moment. "He's about this tall," he said, holding his hand up to Shadow's eye level. "Probably about your height, very pale, dark haired, and I think he's wearing a black and white jacket with a hood."

"I just saw him." Shadow said. "When I get back to him, what do you suggest I do?"

"Hold on," he said. He ran back inside his office and returned with a black zippered case. "There's a hypodermic needle and some sedations in here. If you can inject him with this, he'll be fine. I've already filled the needle with the right dose." He handed the case to him. "Once he's incapacitated, bring him to me. I plan to send him to Biotech for more experiments." Shadow took the case and skated down the hallway.

The barrier was surrounding the doors again, but Shadow didn't waste any time. He blasted them down with a Chaos spear.

...

Tyler woke up from his nap, startled, as the explosion reverberated around the circular room. A dark looking Hedgehog, similar in appearance to Sonic, walked through the blasted door. He was about Sonic's height, with jet black fur and red highlights. His eyes were also red, along with his scratched metal shoes. The shoes had jet propulsion holes in their soles, indicating that they were some sort of rocket skates. His muzzle was darker, and he had more slanted eyes, like they were accustomed to looking angry. He had a bright white crest of fur under his collarbone.

Tyler couldn't move very well, but much of the paralysis drug had worn off, allowing him to sit up. The Hedgehog walked toward him, his shoes clanging quietly on the floor.

"**You **must the 'test subject' Dr. Comminor was talking about." he said.

"'Test subject?" Tyler slurred. He was still drowsy.

"Yes. You also tried to lock me out of this room earlier."

"I did?" _Did I do it while I was asleep?_

"You're not very bright, are you." It wasn't a question.

Tyler bristled at this. "Who are you?" he said, his voice hardening.

"I am Shadow the Hedgehog. But my name isn't important right now." His voice was low and a little raspy, like a 20-year-old Clint Eastwood. "Hold still." He unzipped the black case he was holding and pulled out Comminor's needle.

_Oh HALE no!_ The needle shattered in the Hedgehog's hand. The sedation liquid splattered onto the floor, surprising Shadow.

"Dr. Comminor and I aren't exactly on the best of terms right now." Tyler said, leaning against the wall to stand up.

"That's none of my concern." the stygian Hedgehog said. "I was asked to take you to him. I'm sure I get a bonus for this, so I'm willing to do it one way or another."

He strode over to where Tyler was standing, but stopped as he ran into Tyler's shield. _You're not getting through that, bud. _Well, he did. Shadow fired a bolt of yellow electrical discharge at the barrier, creating a ripple of light as it melted the plasticwrap-like barrier. _Oh crap. _Shadow continued towards him, but Tyler lashed out with his mind. Some of the plexiglass cases around the artifacts in the room shattered. The sharp shards whizzed through the air like darts, all aimed at Shadow. He dodged them without trouble, and the glass pieces stuck themselves in the floor where he had been standing. _Oh crap,_ Tyler thought again. _I'm screwed now._ This was the best he could do in the half-drugged state he was in. Shadow grabbed his arm.

"BACK OFF!" Tyler demanded. Shadow released him as a spiral of energy emanated from Tyler's thoughts. He was panicking now; not because of Shadow, but because of **It**. The Scepter. **It** was here, in the room. He looked around and spotted it on a pedestal against the wall. Tyler imagined that if the Scepter had limbs, it would've waved at him. He needed to get out. He pushed Shadow as far away from him as he could and made a painful, hobbling dash to the door. Shadow somehow appeared fast enough in front of him that Tyler didn't see him move. The Hedgehog punched him in the stomach to subdue him, causing Tyler to double up in pain. More shards of glass flew towards Shadow's face, but he disintegrated them with his energy blasts. While Tyler was still winded, Shadow grabbed him around the middle and walked stolidly from the room.

The lights above flickered manitiously as Tyler tried to twist himself away from him.

"This is a huge misunderstanding," Tyler tried to explain. "I'm not trying to hurt anyone, it's Comminor you should be attacking!"

"You can save your excuses for later. All I'm concerned with now is getting you to Comminor and receiving my pay. What he does to you, or what you do to him, is not my problem."

A light over them broke in half. Glass and sparks rained from the ceiling in a torrent, but Shadow simply walked right through it, completely nonplussed. _Nothing I do is working,_ Tyler thought. _And I'm running low on energy._ _I can't keep this up much longer._

Shadow noticed that Tyler stopped resisting. "Give up?"

"Pretty much." _No, I don't give up._ He needed to make Shadow think he was quitting, to give him a false sense of security. He also needed to conserve as much energy as possible if he was going to get away from him. He needed to think. _Metal? What metal is in here? And water, too? Where?_ He could feel cold water sitting inside a long metal container, but where?_ Oh, duh. The fire sprinklers! _Shadow's rocket shoes didn't look waterproof.

_(water metal water cold pipe skinny metal water)_

He clicked one of the sprinklers on the ceiling to the side, turning it on. He only had enough energy left in him to do one more major telekinetic move, so he needed to be very careful about what he did next. Misty domes of water cascaded down from the ceiling, drenching the floor. Tyler misjudged the force it would take to break the sprinkler, resulting in the entire water pipe snapping in half. The water would pool in the ceiling, until it would become too heavy to hold..._Awesome_.

Shadow stopped. "Did you do this?" he demanded.

"I told you. I gave up." Tyler said, as snidely as possible. Shadow's shoes began to spark and short-circuit. He angrily tossed Tyler to the floor as he examined his left foot. Tyler took this chance to run, or rather, slosh, through the ankle-deep water. He knew Shadow would catch up with him, but he just had to make it to the end of the hall. The floor filled with water much too quickly; waves were already lapping against the walls.

Shadow's fist closed around his neck. "You've crossed the line. If I weren't delivering you to Comminor, you would be an unsightly scorch mark on the floor right now." He dragged Tyler through the water towards Comminor's door, which to Tyler's relief, wasn't very far from the end of the hall.

...

_This kid had better be pretty (_censored_) important,_ Shadow thought as he dragged the boy by his neck through the chilly water. _This simple side job could've taken minutes, maybe even seconds. But no. Comminor had to lose a telekinetic brat._He knocked on Comminor's door, leaving splintered dents in the wood out of irritation. Comminor answered it, and gasped at the water flooding into his office. Then he saw the kid.

"Good lord, you found him!" Comminor cried. Shadow didn't say anything as he threw the boy at him and left. He heard the door close behind him as he waded back up the hall to the equipment room to retrieve a new pair of jet shoes. The sprinklers continued to flood the hall, and didn't show any signs of stopping. If he found another pair of jet shoes, they would just short-circuit again if he took them through the hallway. He decided to turn around and go to the main computer room to meet up with the Commander for his money. Then he would dry off and go home. As he once again neared Comminor's door on his way out, he heard a deep groaning, wrenching, bending sound from the above, as if the roof was about to cave in. Little cracks had begun to run across the ceiling, dripping with more water. Shadow didn't want to stick around to see what would happen.

The door to Comminor's office flew open again as the kid splashed out of it, with Comminor close in pursuit. Shadow watched in mild amusement as the boy led the Doctor in circles, but he didn't feel the need to help either of them. The sprinklers finally shut off at the sound of another rumble of protest from the ceiling. Shadow should probably leave. _Now_. The kid had backed up against the door leading to the main computer room, his hand grappling behind him as he felt for the doorknob. Comminor advanced on him with another syringe in his hand, loaded with enough medication to possibly kill the boy. Shadow felt, fleetingly, that Comminor was the real problem in the situation. His thought was confirmed when the kid looked straight at him and

_(look out)_

felt someone talking to him. He didn't have time to think about it, for the cracks above had finally met together. The ceiling caved in to the weight of the water that had filled up when the sprinklers' pipe broke. The mass of water fell in a giant wave of force, spreading out along the floor and splashing up the sides of the walls. The lights flickered and turned off as the water seeped into them, shorting them out. Shadow had avoided most of the collapsing water and rubble thanks to the boy's unspoken warning, but Comminor didn't seem so lucky. Shadow disliked looking at broken bones, so he turned away from Comminor's body to where the boy had been standing. He could barely see through the dark hall, but he knew that he was gone.

...

Tyler had opened the door behind him and fled, just in time. He pushed against the door as a tidal wave struck the other side. Water spurted underneath and around the door, further soaking him. He put his back against the door and slid down into a sitting position, passing out as he did so. The G.U.N. agents, along with Rouge and the Commander, could only stare at him in shock as more water trickled from behind the door.

* * *

**REVIEW!**


	9. Voro

Voro

Sonic sat in Tails' blue denim armchair with his feet propped up on the coffee table as he watched the news blaring from the television. Apparently, a major water pipe in the G.U.N. office building had burst, flooding most of its basement. Some of the soggy support beams had collapsed, injuring a scientist.

"Hey Tails," Sonic called. There was a metallic clang, followed by a swear word Tails didn't want him to hear.

"Yeah?" he answered from his workshop in the next room.

"Isn't Tyler at the G.U.N. building?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Come over here."

Tails came into the living room and looked at the television. His two tails twitched uneasily when he read the screen.

"Wow. I hope Tyler wasn't in the basement." he said.

"Don't you think it's a little odd that a water pipe randomly snaps while Tyler's there?" Sonic said, arching an eyebrow.

"It could just be a coincidence. I mean, it's an old building in an even older part of the city. I doubt they check the pipes often." Tails said. The pale yellow rotary phone on the small table next to the armchair rang. Tails answered it.

"Hello?...Yes, this is him. Oh, hi Rouge...yeah, he's right here...okay, I'll put him on." Tails handed over the phone.

"Hello?" Sonic said.

"Hi, it's Rouge. It's been a while." the slinky bat greeted.

"Hey, what's up?" Sonic said.

"I'm not exactly sure how to explain this," she said. "There's been some sort of accident over at G.U.N's Westopolis branch."

"I know, I just saw it on the news. Are you there right now?"

"Yeah, I am, and so is Shadow."

"Great. Did '_Mr._ _Sunshine_' himself have anything to do with the water pipe breaking?"

"Well, I don't know. Shadow said he saw the ceiling cave in, but he insists that he didn't do it. He keeps talking about this kid that shows up outta nowhere, and--"

"Wait, do you mean a **human** kid?"

"Yeah. You know him, right?"

"Is he okay?

"Well, he seems okay. He's the real reason I called; before he passed out he asked to call you. I was the only one who had Tails' number on hand, so I'm calling now."

"He passed out?"

"Well, yeah—about that...Shadow thought he was some sort of experiment that the doctors were working on, and...he kinda...attacked him..."

"**What?**"Sonic cried, startling Tails.

"Woah, relax!" Rouge assured. "It was a misunderstanding. The kid's fine now, he's in the nurse's ward."

Sonic groaned. "So how's the basement?"

"It's a train wreck. There's water up to my knees down there, it completely ruined by boots! Do you know how expensive diamond-tipped Effingo brand boots are? It took a whole month's salary! Some of the pipes had broken in other parts of the building too, so now we've got smelly construction workers and contractors all over the place."

"Poor you." Sonic muttered. "I'm on my way."

"Oh, you're coming? Well, try not to pick a fight with Shadow. We have enough problems over here. See ya." She snapped her phone shut.

...

Rouge returned her phone into her purse and walked back into the nurse's office. She missed the familiar sound of her boots clicking against the floor, and wondered if she could return them to the Effingo Boutique she had bought them from. The warranty didn't cover water damage, did it? She walked past the nurse's desk and into the curtained patient's room. She stepped out of the way as some agents left the room, having finished with their interrogation of the kid. He sat on the edge of his light blue cot with his head in his hands, staring at a coin that was floating in front of him.

"Having fun?" She asked.

"Loads."The coin fell to tiled floor and rolled away.

"I called Sonic, he's on his way right now."

"Thank you." he said, looking at her. "I appreciate it. You're a lot more helpful than any of these other agents. The nurse hasn't even given me any dry clothes."

"I'll tell her." Rouge said, sitting next to him. "And don't worry about Shadow, I'll get him to apologize," _I'd sooner ask Shadow to take up ballroom dancing,_ she thought.

"He doesn't have to. I'm fine."

She looked at him, confused. "You're okay with him attacking you like that?"

"Sure, it was a mistake. He wouldn't have gone after me if he didn't feel like he had to...right?"

Rouge wanted to say 'Maybe,' but instead she said "Of course." He seemed satisfied. "Well, I need to get going, I've got grown-up things to attend to."

"'Grown-up' things?" Tyler said with a laugh.

"Yeah," said Rouge, missing his humor. "And maybe if you're good, the nurse will give you a lollipop."

Tyler stifled his laughs again. "Okay. I'll see you later. Thanks for your help."

She nodded and left the room. She forgot to ask the nurse for some dry clothes as she strutted out of the room and down the hall.

...

_Seriously, 'grown-up' things? 'Be good, and you'll get a lollipop?'_ Tyler thought. _Gimme a break._

...

Sonic rushed through the glass doors to the lobby of the G.U.N. building and screeched to a halt at the receptionist's desk.

"Oh, Sonic!" The receptionist cried as his jetstream blew away all of her papers like a snowstorm. "You must've heard about the flood downstairs! I'll buzz you in." She pushed a button underneath her desk. A gold elevator opened up across the marble lobby.

"Thanks!" Sonic said as he ran to the elevator. The doors closed behind him, and the elevator slid downward and sideways at the same time and reopened in G.U.N.'s computer room. Sonic stepped out into the dark blue room glowing with computer screens, scanning around for Rouge, Shadow, or Tyler. _Nope, nothing,_ except for the Commander, who was talking to a small group of G.U.N. Doctors. Sonic walked over to them and overheard the tail end of their conversation.

"As we've said, Comminor was working alone. No one was aiding him in his attempt to capture the _Avius_. We also know that he bribed the security guards in the area to stay away from his sector of the building, so he wouldn't be discovered." one of the Doctors said.

"Was he killed in the collapse?" the Commander asked.

"No, sir." another Doctor answered. "He has a few broken bones, but he'll live."

"Good." the Commander said. He pulled out a walkie-talkie from his pocket and spoke into it. "Agent Carmicle, I need you to place Dr. Damien Comminor under arrest. He has been airlifted to Westopolis Central Hospital. Relocate him to our prison hospital facilities as soon as you can."

"Yes sir," the walkie-talkie said. He placed it back in his pocket and dismissed the Doctors. He turned to Sonic with a sigh.

"I'm sure you've already heard about our little accident."

"Yep." Sonic said. "There's a friend of mine who was in the building when the basement collapsed. Do you or any of your scientists know where he is?"

"A friend of yours? I'm not sure, I've already seen more than thirty people within the last hour. What does he look like?"

"Well, he's human, and--"

Apparently 'human' was enough of a description."Oh, of course. You mean the _Avius_. I always have found it amusing that you seem to befriend so many important people."

"The _what_?"  
"It's a long story. Our scientists think that your friend was actually part of the accident."

"I thought so."

"He's in the nurse's station right now, but I'm sure he'd like to see you. I'll take you to him." He walked Sonic over to the elevators and pressed the ground floor button. The elevator rose and then opened back in the lobby. They walked through a big pair of dark colored double doors into an ordinary office hallway. The Commander's pocket buzzed, and he pulled out a cell phone. He looked at the text message and frowned. "I'm sorry to leave you like this, but something just came up. He's in that room right there," he said as he pointed to a plain door. He turned around and went back into the lobby. Sonic walked over to the door and opened it.

Inside was a fluorescently-lit nurse's office. Plastic burgundy chairs sat against the wall next to small tables with outdated magazines. A fishbowl and a goldfish sat on the desk. The nurse looked up as he went in.

"Well if it isn't Sonic the Hedgehog! I can't believe I'm actually seeing you in person, instead of on T.V.! My grandson is a huge fan of yours!" the middle-aged, pear-shaped nurse got up from her chair to shake his hand. "Could I get an autograph?"

"Sure," he said. She pulled out a sheet of paper and a pen. "Where are your patients? There's someone I came here to see." Sonic said as he signed the sheet.

"Oh, you mean that little boy? He's right over there," She pointed to a curtained-off arch. Sonic pushed the white fabric out of the way and went in. Tyler was sitting on one of several blue cots in the room. Despite the blanket over his shoulders, and he was still shivering. His hair and clothes were soaked; the nurse didn't think to supply him with some dry apparel. He was asleep, leaning against the wall instead of lying down. Sonic walked over and sat next to him, poking him the arm to wake him up. Tyler flinched, and the pillow flopped off of the bed. Sonic poked him harder, and he woke up.

"Wha? Oh, hey!" Tyler said, realizing who had poked him. "What's up?"

"I think** I** should be asking that. Did you have fun playing in the sprinklers?" he teased. Tyler laughed.

"Heh. Yeah, I thought G.U.N. could use an indoor swimming pool." he yawned.

"The flood was on the news."

Tyler sighed. "Great. Do they know what caused it?"

"I don't think so."

"Good." he sighed again. "I'm starting to get annoyed with all of the attention."

"What attention?" Sonic asked, looking around the empty room.

"Those dumb agents keep asking me all of these questions, like 'Who are you?' 'Did you do this?' 'Where's your mother?' That kind of crap. They couldn't keep me awake long enough to answer them all, so they finally left me alone. And then that one chick, what was her name...oh, Rouge the Bat, is all like_ 'Be a nice little boy and you'll get a lollipop'_ or something like that. Do I really look **that** tiny and adorable?"

"Yep."

"Whatever. Just as long as people don't start calling me 'junior' or 'kid,' I'll deal with it."

"So, what **did** happen?"

"What did what happen?"

"The flood downstairs,"

"Oh..."

Tyler looked down and hesitated, but told the story anyway. He started from where G.U.N. took him to the building earlier in the evening, and ended just after he escaped from the collapsed hallway into the computer room.

"I don't know what happened to Comminor or Shadow. I went out like a light after I tore down the ceiling," Tyler said.

"Well, you don't have to worry." Sonic said. "I overheard a conversation with the Commander; he said that Comminor got arrested. As for Shadow, I'm sure he's skulking around here somewhere." He paused. "Are you okay?"

"Hmm?"

"I mean, you almost died; I think Comminor was fully prepared to kill you if he thought you were going to escape."

Tyler looked away from him. "I'm fine."

"That's not very convincing."

Tyler stayed silent.

"You're not okay." Sonic pressed.

Tyler turned back to him. "I'm fine. And even if I'm not okay right now, then I **will** be, eventually. You don't need to worry about it. I may look all cute and innocent right now," he said, gesturing to himself, "But I'm made of tougher stuff. I'm okay."

They stayed silent for a little bit before Sonic stood up.

"Well, are you ready to go?"

"Sure."

They left.

...

Truthfully, Tyler was not okay. Far from it. His new younger body in this world was actually becoming a problem; no one took him seriously, and his eight-year-old-mind was conflicting with his fourteen-year-old-mind. One moment he'd be thinking about how smokin' hot the girl at the cash register was at the supermarket, and then the next moment he'd see a flower and _oh my gawd look at the flower it's so preetttyyyyyyy!!!!_ He needed to go home, and by 'home,' he didn't mean Amy's house. After almost being killed by a crazed scientist, he needed his family again.

He had talked to Sonic and Knuckles about his eventual departure from their world. They said that to create a large enough hole through the universe for Tyler to travel through, then they need all seven Chaos Emeralds. Sonic and the others had two; Eggman might have one; and he was pretty sure Shadow or Rouge had one also. That meant that there were three other Emeralds to find. But he also needed more information on this whole '_Procella Avius_' thing. How often did one show up? How many of them actually returned home? He needed answers.

The next day at Amy's house, Tyler turned on her pink computer and launched a search engine (they didn't have Google. Instead they had a website called 'Barang,' and it was basically the same thing). He typed in _Procella Avius_ in the search bar, but he spelled it phonetically, Proesellah Ayvius. The search engine suggested the correct spelling, and he clicked on it. A long, long list of search results were pulled up. He clicked on the first one:

Procella Avius_, the trans-dimensional traveler. _

_History has documented several _Aviuses_ throughout the centuries, most notably of __Alice Liddel__ and __Dorothy Gale__, both of whom have successfully returned home without sustaining lasting damage from __their _Atrum Navitas Voro_. _

The webpage was white with simple black text on it, like an encyclopedia article. There were portraits under the text that illustrated what these past Aviuses had looked like.

Alice Liddel? Dorothy Gale? They sounded extremely familiar. They must have come from his homeworld; their names were too Earthly. But what was an _Atrum Navitas Voro_, and why would Alice or Dorothy 'sustain lasting damage' from it? The _Atrum Navitas Voro_ was a link, so he clicked on it to find out more information.

_The _Atrum Navitas Voro_, or the 'dark life eater,' is the bane of the _Procella Avius_' existence. The _Atrum Navitas Voro_ (usually shortened to '_Voro_') is a partially living creature of the dark. Since the _Procella Avius_' innate energy is similar to light, the _Voro_ attempts to create an __equilibrium__ between its darkness and the _Avius_' light. This results in the _Voro's_ dominance over the _Avius_, and will end up imbibing energy away from its victim in a similar fashion to a leech._

The word 'equilibrium' was also a link, so Tyler clicked it.

_Equilibrium is when two pockets of different substances attempt to mix together to balance each other out. While equilibrium is often used in chemistry, it takes on a whole new meaning in the _Procella Avius_ phenomena. The _Voro_ will parasitically feed off of an _Avius_' energy and mix it with its own darkness, forming a powerful crystalline equilibrium combination within its body. An excellent example of this is the superbeing Solaris, the patron deity of Soleanna, which is said to be made up of a fire demon and a shaded demon. Both deities use each other's energy and combine it with their own (although in this case, an_ Avius _is not present). The_ Voro_ only creates an equilibrium for its own power and motives, instead of just creating a balance._

_Well, that's kinda gross,_ Tyler thought. _Fortunately, I don't seem to have a _Voro_ following me around everywhere (unless Eggman counts), so I'm safe for now._ He didn't get enough information from this site, or any of the others he found. He typed 'procella avius books library westopolis' in the search bar. The results brought up Westopolis' Public Library. He retyped his search within the library's website and found a huge list of books on the subject. They were all by the same author, Odobenus the Walrus. _Cool, a talking Walrus! _He clicked on his name and found a biography and an address. Odobenus lived in Westopolis, near Central Park. _New York City reference aside, I think I could probably get a lot more information from Odobenus than from any of his books if I visit him in person. He could be thrilled to meet an actual _Avius_._ He printed off the address.

...

Eggman loved to steal priceless or dangerous items, but he didn't like it when said items were stolen from **him**. So it was only a matter of time before he sent out mechas to retrieve the Scepter of Darkness from G.U.N. The mechas were very simple; they were small, marble-sized metal spheres that could roll around by themselves. They had a GPS navigational system programmed into them, allowing them to see where they were going without actual 'eyes.' They also had a tiny array of weapons inside them. They could open in half like a plastic Easter egg and pull out a miniature buzz saw, laser beam, or a burst of knockout gas. When the spheres came together, their top hemispheres could flatten out to become a single flat tray-like platform.

Eggman dropped his tiny mechas into the sewer system near the G.U.N. building. The spheres rolled up the pipes into the building's restrooms and popped out of a toilet (much to the occupant's surprise) and rolled underneath the door and out into the hall. They were tiny enough that the low-resolution security cameras couldn't pick them out as they rolled to the Scepter's containment room.

Unfortunately for Eggman, he didn't know that the containment room had been damaged by Tyler when Shadow had tried to capture him. G.U.N. technicians were busy installing brand new glass containers around the artifacts in the room that Tyler had shattered, including the one around the Scepter. Since the spheres were on autopilot, they blasted open the container, formed a movable platform, and placed the Scepter on it in full view of the technicians. One of the technicians tried to pull the Scepter away from the spheres, but one of them opened up and tried to slash him with a rotating saw. They immediately sounded the alarm.

...

The leaves in Westopolis had begun to convert to their autumn coloration. Splashes of scarlet, woody orange, and burnt lemon adorned the trees around Central Park. In Arizona, the trees didn't change color until December, and it was still August there. But time must flow differently in Sonic's world, since it was already their equivalent to October.

"Do you really have to carry me everywhere? I'm okay with walking, really. Or we could take one of Tails' vehicles, he's got like twenty frigging planes!" Tyler complained.

"We could do that, but there's two problems," Sonic said, spraying fiery leaves behind him as he ran down the cobblestone path through the park. "One: walking is for people who don't have super speed, so you can rule me out of that category. And two: we both know you hate heights, and you're just trying to think of excuses. I don't mind taking you to places you really need to go to, so relax."

"Well, **I** would get annoyed if I had to carry someone everywhere."

"It's not like you weigh a ton."

"It's not like you're my taxi." Tyler countered.

Sonic sighed. "So where is this Odobenus guy's house?"

"Umm..." Tyler said, trying to read the map he printed off. "432 West Courtina Avenue."

"Got it, hold on." He jumped up and planted his foot against a tree, using it to spring off of its trunk into the high branches of another tree. He launched himself from branch to branch across the park.

"Is this a shortcut?" Tyler asked.

"Not really, it's just fun."

"I thought we had just established that I'm afraid of heights,"

"You've gotta face your fears sooner or later."

The multicolored leaves whirled around them like a kaleidescope as Sonic jumped through the canopy of the park to the fenced-off edge of Courtina Avenue. The houses here were the kind that Tyler normally saw in movies that took place in New York City. They were all at least three stories tall, but only fifteen feet wide. They were put together with almost no space in between them. They had stoops and fire escapes and tiny windows. House #432 was in the exact middle of the neighborhood, and probably the most distinguishable. Although it was an ordinary brick building, Odobenus had wanted to make a statement. The two large trees in his tiny front yard were adorned with colorful wine bottles, ornaments, and wind chimes. Metallic pinwheels and windsocks mounted on stakes had lined the concrete path from the sidewalk to his front door. A slate with red chalk words that said 'Gift Shop Inside' hung from the door.

"Wow." Sonic said. "This is the 'brilliant scholar' that wrote all of those books about you?"

"He didn't write them about **me**, specifically."Tyler said. "I guess being an author doesn't give him enough money, so he has this little gift shop. I wonder what it sells."

"We're not going to find out by standing here and staring at his door." Sonic said as he walked up the three-foot-long path. He rang the doorbell, and it jingled with some sort of holiday music. Tyler walked up beside him as Odobenus opened the door.

"Hello?" he said. He was a very fat Walrus, wearing a tight purple argyle sweater-vest. His tusks weren't very long, and he wore tiny pair of bifocals that somehow stayed on his large snout. He was a good two feet taller than Sonic and Tyler, and they both wondered how this Walrus could write any books with such large flippers.

"Can I help you?" Odobenus asked.

"Hi, I'm Sonic, and this is Tyler," Sonic announced. "We were hoping if you had time to answer a few of our questions."

Odobenus leaned down a bit to look at Sonic before he suddenly gasped. "Oh my goodness! Sonic the Hedgehog **in person**! Yes, of course, please come in!" He shuffled back away from the door. His entry hall was very narrow, with fancy wallpaper that was purple and lavender striped, with even fancier oil lamps hanging on the walls. Another chalkboard with an arrow on it pointed to the doorway on the left to the gift shop. The stairs and the room at the end of the hall were roped off. Odobenus led them to the room on the right.

It was a study, with dark brown ornate bookshelves all around the green walls. Chocolate colored leather furniture was placed around the room on the green rug, and an antique writing desk sat in the corner under a wall lamp.

"Please, please, take a seat!" he waved over to the comfy chairs. They sat down across from him. "Can I get you anything?" he asked. "Tea, coffee, water?"

"Nope, I'm good." Sonic said.

"Me too."

"Alright then." Odobenus said as he sat down. "Now, what was it that you wanted to talk to me about?"

"Well," Tyler began. "Do you consider yourself an expert on the whole _Procella Avius_ phenomena?"

Odobenus was taken aback; he didn't expect that kind of vocabulary to come from an eight-year-old.

"I—I guess I do consider myself as an expert. No one else, as far as I know, has researched them so extensively. Why do you ask?"

"Because I am one."

Odobenus' eyes widened in surprise. "You? You are the next _Avius_?"

Tyler and Sonic both nodded. Odobenus' excitement wavered for a moment.

"Now, I **have** had several individuals visit me, insisting that they were also true _Aviuses_. Of course they were all charlatans, flouting cheap parlour tricks in my face. What can you do that proves to me that you're the real thing?" Odobenus queried. Tyler didn't say anything. Instead, Odobenus' chair rose off of the ground with him still sitting in it. The seat slowly rotated and sat back on the ground, facing the Walrus away from them.

"That's incredible!" Odobenus cried, hopping up to his feet (or were they flippers, too?) and repositioning the chair. "Never in all my years had I ever expected to meet an _Avius_ in person! This is astounding, you can't even imagine how important it is to me that you've come!"

"Then I've come to the right place." Tyler said.

"Indeed you have. I can answer any question you have for me." he said as he sat back down.

"Okay," Tyler began. "The two most recent Aviuses, Alice Liddel and Dorothy Gale. What can you tell me about them?"

Sonic sat up; he didn't know that there were more people like Tyler.

"Which would you like to hear about first?" Odobenus asked.

"Dorothy. Where did she come from?"

"Well, since she came from your world, you might be more familiar with her origins than me. She came to this world in a very violent and powerful storm, it was quite a disaster. Her entire house, with her inside it, had been sent here. The house actually landed on a rather despicable person."

"Who did it land on?"

"Some governor in the eastern part of the United Federation. She (the governor) was infamous for heavily taxing her citizens and abolishing their rights. Dorothy's house landed right on top of her, killing her, and freeing the inhabitants from her rule."

"I'm aware that all Aviuses have some sort of powers, so what were Dorothy's?"

"She had the ability to avoid trouble: no matter what situation she was in, she could always find a way out of it. I'm afraid that's all I know, because her power was very vague."

"Did she say where she came from?"

"Well, this all happened about 80 years ago, so I'm not sure if this place still exists. She said she came from 'Canziss'"

"You mean...Kansas?" Tyler was beginning to realize who this Dorothy person was. _She comes from Kansas...her house lands on a 'wicked' ruler in the east...she ends up in a land where Animals can talk...No way. No fricking way. _"So what about this Alice person? How did she get here?"

"Alice's journey was actually quite simple; she just fell down a hole and found herself here. A nice Rabbit helped her, and they-"

"Where did she come from?" Tyler blurted. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. I'm just beginning to realize that I might know these people."

"That's quite alright. Alice said that she came from Eenglend. Does that sound familiar?"

"England? Yes. Yes it does." _Alice falls down a hole to follow a talking White Rabbit._ So what did this mean? Were all famous fictional literary characters actually real, or was it just certain stories? _No, it must be specific stories,_ Tyler reasoned. _Stories where the main character travels to an alternate dimension populated by talking Animals might have roots in actual _Aviuses_. _

_Trippy._

"How does an _Avius_ get here?" Sonic asked.

"Oh, it's really quite simple," Odobenus said as he stood up again. He grabbed a book off of a shelf and opened it. After flipping through several chapters, he found the page he was looking for, and handed the book to Sonic. "You see, this universe, which we call Mobius, and your universe, which you call Earth, are very close together." The picture in the book showed a large blue circle labeled Mobius, and a red circle named Earth. "Sometimes, parts of the universe can stick out, and puncture the universe closest to it." The next picture showed a spike jutting out of the Earth circle, jabbing into the Mobius circle. "Sometimes objects, or even people, can fall into the hole created by the puncture wound, and end up in an entirely different universe. This is how all Aviuses get here, and it's also how they get back."

"Can I use your restroom?" Tyler suddenly asked.

"Of course, it's down the hall and to the right." Odobenus said. Tyler got up from his seat and walked down the striped hall to the light blue, ocean-themed bathroom. _Odobenus likes to coordinate his rooms._ _The purple entrance hall, the green study, and now this bathroom. _He sighed._ So there __**is**__ a definite way home. If I can get all seven Chaos Emeralds, I can make a big enough 'spike' and return to Earth._

...

Sonic worriedly watched Tyler leave the room. He knew the _Aviuses_ that Odobenus had described were people that Tyler personally knew. It was almost painful to see Tyler's expression when the Walrus told him where Dorothy came from. _He might've even been to this Kansas place,_ he thought. He also knew that Tyler didn't really have to go to the bathroom; he just needed a short break to collect his thoughts.

"Now that he's gone, Sonic, there's something very serious that I must tell you." Odobenus said, suddenly becoming very stern. "I didn't want to say this while he was still here, but your friend is in danger."

"Danger? How?"

"All _Aviuses_ have a predator that stalks them, called the _Atrum Navitas Voro. _You must keep this boy out of the _Voro's_ grasp, or terrible things could happen."

"What? A stalker? Nobody's been stalking Tyler, except for Eggman, and I doubt that he counts." Sonic said, crossing his arms.

"The _Voro_ comes in different forms," Odobenus said. "But they all want the same thing; the _Avius_' energy. All _Aviuses_ have a type of bioelectricity used by their nervous system that the _Voro_ uses as food. All _Voros_ are harmful and incredibly dangerous, and can become extremely powerful if they are boosted with an _Avius_ in their captivity."

"You don't have to worry about that, Tyler's not exactly defenseless. He can take care of himself if I'm not around," Sonic said.

"I certainly hope so." Odobenus said sadly. "Not all _Aviuses_ have survived this world, you know."

Sonic had no intention of telling Tyler any of this. He had enough problems, didn't he? He didn't need to know about some crazy stalker.

wooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSSSHHHHHH**.

A giant aircraft blasted over the house, casting a shadow and darkening the study. Books rattled in their shelves, and some actually fell onto the rug. Tyler ran back into the room.

"Was that a jet?"

"I don't think so," Sonic said. He ran outside to the street and looked up. Eggman's bright red-and-silver airbase soared over Westopolis like a metal thunderhead.

"Is that Eggman?" Tyler asked as he joined him on the road.

"Yep. Looks like he's running from something."

"From what?"

...

Eggman was running from G.U.N. His attempt to steal back the Scepter of Darkness didn't really go so well: his tiny metal spheres actually **did** show up on G.U.N. security cameras, and he had to quickly retrieve the Scepter before all of the agents were summoned to the containment chamber. Not to mention Shadow and Rouge's involvement, they were particularly ticked off that the item they had just stolen from him was being taken back, and they were no doubt following his less-than-inconspicuous airbase. Not really his best plan ever.

His fears of being followed were realized when a warning prompt popped up on his computer screen in the control room of the Eggshuttle. A hole had been blasted through the side of the ship by a Chaos blast. No surprises as to who had caused it. Eggman pulled up the security cameras and watched Shadow and Rouge return to their tiny jet that was docked on top of the Eggshuttle, the Scepter already in Rouge's hands. Eggman grunted from irritation as he sent a wave of humanoid mechas to pursue them. He decided that his mechas probably wouldn't be able to defeat them **and** get the Scepter back undamaged, so he decided to take it back himself.

...

"What's that?" Tyler said, pointing to the black jet that had detached itself from the Eggshuttle.

"That looks like a G.U.N. jet," Sonic said. It was flying low enough for him to tell what kind of aircraft it was.

"What could it have been doing up there?" Tyler asked as he followed its progress across the sky.

"Let's check it out!" Sonic said. "Are you in?"

"Well...if it'a a G.U.N. aircraft, and not Eggman's...okay, let's go. We can revisit Odobenus later."

Sonic picked Tyler up and sprinted down the street, following the jet's exhaust trail before it faded. Neither Tyler nor Sonic noticed the second aircraft that came off of the Eggshuttle.

...

Shadow landed the sleek black jet in Mystic Ruins, an ancient crumbling temple and plaza in the heart of Angel Island. He popped open the cockpit and jumped out with Rouge gracefully landing beside him. The plaza was a giant platform built on a hill in the middle of the jungle, constructed out of blocks of limestone and surrounded by tall pillars of ivy-covered stone. Several hundred yards away was the pyramid that Knuckles had lived on before the Island crashed. They had landed in the Ruins to rendezvous with a separate branch of G.U.N. They were ordered to hand over the Scepter of Darkness, and G.U.N. would hide it in a much safer spot. Hopefully. Rouge bounced the Scepter between her hands impatiently as they waited for the others to arrive. Clouds had begun to fill the sky, draining the jungle around the stone plaza of color and light. _Wish they would hurry up and get here,_ Shadow thought. _Eggman could be on our tail, and we're just sitting ducks waiting for him._

They heard the recognizable patter of feet quickly running through the jungle, making Shadow's forehead crease with annoyance. _Great._ _Here comes The Blue Smear. _Sonic leapt up onto the giant stone plaza, carrying Tyler with him. _Oh look, he's babysitting. Why would he bring him here? This isn't a daycare center. Leave it to Sonic to inadvertently complicate a simple mission._

"Hi," Rouge waved. "Didn't think I'd see you two out here."

"Hey Rouge, Shadow." Sonic nodded to both of them as he set Tyler down.

"What's up?" Tyler greeted, but only to Rouge. Shadow found that annoying.

"Oh, you know," Rouge said conversationally. "Just waiting around."

"For what?" Sonic asked.

"None of your business." Shadow growled. "Why are you here?"

"Chill, Shadow," Sonic said, raising his hands. "We saw your jet fly off of Eggman's ship, and we were curious."

"So is that what you do in your spare time? Following people around and barging in on their work?" Shadow shot at him.

"Of course not, we didn't know that you'd--"

"Whatever. Now that you know what's going on, you can leave." Shadow ordered.

"Geez, someone forgot their meds this morning." Sonic rolled his eyes. "Come on Tyler, we can go now...Tyler?"

Tyler had been staring at the Scepter the whole time, standing rigid on the spot.

"Tyler? Hello?" Sonic waved a hand in front of Tyler's face.

"Huh? Oh, sorry. I wasn't listening. Are we leaving?" he asked.

_What's his problem?_ Shadow thought as he glanced at the Scepter. It **did** look strange; the purple smoke was practically boiling around inside of it from...happiness? The Scepter was **happy**?

A second familiar noise came from the jungle: jets. Eggman had followed them to Mystic Ruins, presumably to get the Scepter back. His metal bowl-like pod flew out of the foliage, flanked by dozens of eight foot tall robots, bristling with guns and missiles.

"Isn't this a happy little gathering?" Eggman said. "Nearly all of my favorite people here in one spot. How exciting." The robots formed a circle around them, boxing them in. "And it just keeps getting better! It's nice to see you again, Tyler."

Shadow didn't know that Eggman had already met Tyler, and was equally surprised that Tyler looked determined instead of scared. _This day just keeps getting better and better._

"I'll make my demands brief: give me the Scepter and the boy, and I'll be on my way."

"No to the first," Rouge said.

"As no to the second," Tyler said.

"Very well," Eggman said as he typed in his keyboard for the robots to attack.

The robot closest to Rouge fired a missile at her. She dodged it and took to the air to engage Eggman's pod in combat. Sonic curled into a ball and spindashed at another robot, slicing his way through its torso like a rotating saw. Shadow turned and blasted apart two robots at once with a Chaos Spear in a shower of yellow sparks, hurling their fried carapaces across the plaza. He turned to see if Tyler needed any help, but was once again surprised when he saw that the small boy was quite capable of defending himself. A robot had tried to seize him, but its jugular wires promptly snapped out of it's neck, causing the robot to shoot its comrades in its dying throes. Shadow didn't have time to think about how Tyler was doing this as a bright red missile rocketed towards his face. He somersaulted over it and shot it with a Chaos Spear, causing it to explode in mid-air. Using the shockwave to boost him higher, Shadow shot another mecha, spraying bolts and circuitry out the back of its head. Rouge was busy fighting hand-to-heel with two jetpacked robots, punching holes through them with her new diamond-tipped boots.

Tyler shouted something unintelligible to Sonic, but he must have understood him, because he began rounding up robots towards one of the stone pillars that encircled the plaza. He ran around several robots in a tight circle, forcing them to group together in a clump as he moved them into the pillars range. Tyler made a jerking movement with his hands, and the pillar toppled over onto his enemies, crushing them into gouts of motor oil. Sonic ran back and high-fived him before they fought off another wave of robots. Shadow heard a clicking noise behind him as one of the robots switched from a missile launcher into a machine gun.

The mecha emptied it's bullet clip as it tried to fill Shadow full of holes, but missed every shot as Shadow used Chaos Control to teleport out of sight. He reappeared in a flash of light above the robot's head and smashed it into the ground. Other robots were trying to use their machine guns against Sonic and Rouge also, but they had the same luck. Rouge held out the Scepter in front of her like a shield, and the robots stopped firing at her; they had strict orders not to harm the Scepter. Any bullets that were fired at Sonic were slowed down to a snail's pace, thanks to Tyler's telekinesis.

Eggman had finally lost patience with battle, and did one of the most idiotic things he could've done: he bumped into Rouge with his flying pod, causing her to drop the Scepter.

It shattered.

* * *

**REVIEW!**


	10. Worse

Worse

The Scepter of Darkness easily shattered against the hard stones of the plaza, crumbling into grains of sparkling fragments. The gas that was bound up inside of it actually turned out to be a deep black color instead of the purple hue that Tyler had thought. The cloud of gas stayed within the pile of of broken remains of the Scepter and didn't disperse like gases usually do. It stayed there in a coagulation of blackness, motionless, like a barracuda eyeing a small fish. The gas also seemed much more liquid than anything, because it seemed to sit in the air, bleeding a dark color around it, similar to how black ink stains wet paper.

"Retreat! All mechas, series E68-72 retreat immediately!" Eggman ordered. His flying pod and his surviving robots hastily fled from the plaza back into the jungle as if their lives were in jeopardy.

"Um, Sonic, I think we should go too," Tyler said, pulling Sonic's arm towards the foliage.

"Wait just a sec, I wanna see this," Sonic said, staring at the black three-dimensional stain.

"No, you don't want to see this. We really need to leave!" Tyler insisted, beginning to panic. He knew that the black cloud was not friendly, if it was alive at all. The cloud swiftly ran along the ground in a thick coil like a snake, causing the group to gasp loudly from shock and revulsion. The sun had begun to shine again from behind the cloud cover, casting long shadows against the plaza's surface. The black...**thing**, startled by the light, flew up into the air in a flurry of wisps and dark pigments, before diving into the nearest shadow: Shadow's shadow. Shadow himself stepped back from his shade in surprise.

The black smoke filled into the shadow's outline, filling every space. The gas slowly solidified into a puddinglike mixture as gray and blue streaks bloomed out of the darkness, like mold. The dark slime finally hardened enough to become solid, turning into a carbon-copy of Shadow's appearance.

The new Hedgehog looked exactly like Shadow, except for three major things. For one, he was completely colorless. Shadow's fur was black with red streaks, and glossy. This newer Hedgehog also had black fur, but it had retained grayish-blue highlights instead of red, and didn't reflect any light. The new Hedgehog's jet shoes were also gray instead of red, and the metal power rings around its wrists and ankles were a flat bronze instead of gold. Second, the Hedgehog had green reptilian eyes with lizard-like vertical slits for pupils, criss-crossed with veins. Lastly, it had no mouth. None. Just a blank space on its gray muzzle where a mouth should have been.

The sun slowly hid itself behind a cloud again, as if its only purpose was to create shadows for the black smoke (now Hedgehog) to revive itself with. The Hedgehog slowly rose to its feet without bending or moving a muscle, and turned to look at them.

"Interesting," it said, despite it's **lack of a freaking mouth! **Tyler cringed at its voice. It had the same effect as Darth Vader's voice, minus the breathing problems. The Hedgehog looked down at its new body.

"I had hoped that I would be revived by a much...larger being, but this form will do." It, or rather, **he**, turned to look at them.

"Who are you?" Shadow demanded. The grayscale Hedgehog slowly turned his head to focus on him.

"I am Mephiles. Mephiles the Dark."

_Mephiles?_ Tyler thought, _like Mephistophiles, the demon from _Faust_? Not a nice name._

"Great, another faker." Tyler heard Sonic mutter.

"It is disappointing that none of you have heard of me. I would've thought that at least **you** would have learned of me through your school teachings," he said, acknowledging Tyler, who shuddered at being noticed.

"Should we have heard of you?" Sonic asked warily, as he and Shadow crouched forward, preparing for another fight. Rouge was still glancing forlornly back at the Scepter, dissapointed that she wouldn't get paid for delivering it.

"Yes, you should have. But I can still make a name for myself, starting right now." Mephiles raised his hand palm-up, creating a crackling purple sphere of energy, which expanded rapidly. As the expanding field swept along the ground, loose stones and leaves crumpled and turned black and sooty. The limestone block floor of the plaza turned dank and rotten as if Mephiles' sphere instantly killed living **and **nonliving things. The shiny limbs of defeated robots turned rusty, and their wires suddenly sprang to life like worms, and began crawling around. Sonic grabbed Tyler and ran into the jungle before the deathfield could touch them while Shadow warped himself and Rouge out of the area using Chaos Control. Mephiles wanted to end **at least **one life before the day ended, so he fired a lance of purple light in Sonic's direction.

The lance flew an inch or two above Sonic's head and ended up striking a large tree. The sap and living tissues of the tree immediately boiled and vaporized, causing a botanical explosion. The shockwave sent Tyler and Sonic to the ground, knocking them both unconscious as Sonic landed in a patch of thornbushes, and Tyler landing in an adjacent clearing.

...

E-68, one of Eggman's robots, had been badly damaged in the battle between it and Shadow a few minutes previously. It's jets no longer worked, which was why it wasn't fleeing Mystic Ruins with Eggman, who had already left. As E-68 hobbled through the jungle, its verbal command receptors received a sound wave from a nearby source that sounded very much like an explosion.

[Temporary minor objective: Investigate possible explosion.] programmed E-68 as it set itself to a new mission.

The robot followed the direction that the sound wave had come from, eventually discovering a giant smoldering log, which most likely used to be a tree a short while ago. A charred blast radius around the destroyed log indicated how large the explosion was. E-68 didn't know what had caused the explosion, and was about to go back towards the Eggshuttle before it spotted a small pile in a clearing not too far away. It approached the pile and saw that it was a [Young human male, approx. 8 years of age, 95 centimeters in height, Conscious: Negative, Living: Positive, Threat: Negative] as it ran a visual scan.

A mission objective window opened within its circuitry, stating [Permanent major objective: Locate and capture Procella Avius]. E-68 picked Tyler up and marched back towards the Eggshuttle.

...

Once again, Tyler woke up in a new and unfamiliar place. _You'd think by now that I'd be used to this, _he thought_. _His head throbbed painfully as he sat up on a tiny bed. _Okay, now where am I? _He was in a very small, metal room. The walls, floor, and ceiling were all metal. There was a door opposite of the side where his bed was, but it was the sci-fi kind of door that slides open. On one wall was a small cabinet, and on another wall was a normal door that could swing back and forth. Tyler got up and opened the door, and found a small bathroom and shower on the other side. He closed the door and opened the cabinet, but only a first-aid kit and a fire extinguisher was inside. The sole light came from a large rectangular fluorescent fixture in the ceiling, and a tiny square light in the bathroom. There was also a security camera mounted on the wall above the bed. Tyler tried to open the sliding door, but there was no handle. _Well, that's not a problem._ _I'll force it open._ He flexed his willpower at the door, and nothing happened. _What?_ He tried again, but got the same result. _Why is that?... ...Oh crap. _The irritating, telekinesis-killing collar was around his neck again. _Which means that I'm on Eggman's ship._ _Fantastic._ _Fan-__**freaking**__-tastic._

_..._

Sonic also regained consciousness in an unfamiliar place. He groaned from his headache and from the thorns lodged in his fur as he climbed out of the prickly hedge he'd been knocked into. He went to work picking them off of his arms and legs when he remembered that he was carrying Tyler with him before the explosion. Sonic looked around, but Tyler wasn't anywhere to be seen. He looked in the hedge he'd woken up in, but Tyler wasn't in there either. _So where is he?_

Sonic searched the perimeter of the blast zone created by the exploding tree, and saw footprints stamped into the burned ground. The footprints were deep, with imprints of rivets from metal shoes. The footprints were larger than Shadow's jet skates, so they must've been made by a robot. Sonic followed the footprints over to a small clearing next to the thorny hedge, when they abruptly changed direction and led him to the edge of Angel Island. In the distance, Sonic could see the Eggshuttle flying away. _Wow, not a dull moment today. _He jumped from the Island onto the mainland and began sprinting to Tails' house for help.

...

It may have been only twenty minutes, but it felt like hours before a robot came to fetch Tyler from his cell.

"Eggman requests your presence in the BCC chamber. I will take you to him." the robot said in an artificial tone.

Tyler told the robot that Eggman could shove the BCC into a very inappropriate place, but the robot didn't respond to the rude remark. Instead it grabbed him by the shoulder and forced him out of the room and down a hall. The halls in the Eggshuttle were much more narrow than those on Eggman's island base, making Tyler feel slightly claustrophobic. They stopped at another sliding door, which the robot opened by placing its right hand on a sensor pad on the wall. The pad glowed in confirmation and opened the door. The robot pushed Tyler through into a large, circular room. The walls were completely covered in glowing screens and monitors, and giant keyboards, switches, and levers were set underneath them. The keyboards and screens curved with the wall all the way around the room. In the center was a small platform surrounded by a transparent acrylic tube.

Eggman was standing behind the tube, busily typing away as Tyler walked in. As the door slid shut with a pneumatic hiss, he turned to look at him.

"Welcome back. I hope you found your lodgings comfortable?" he smirked, looking even more spiderlike in his dark control room with his fat body and thin limbs.

"It's lovely." Tyler deadpanned. "There had better be room service, or I want my money back."

"I'll get right on that." Eggman said.

Tyler became aware of another presence in the room as he felt a cold draft. Against the wall to Tyler's right was Mephiles, standing completely still. He had been staring at Tyler the whole time, like had done previously when he was within the Scepter. He never blinked. Ever.

"You are actually our second guest to arrive," Eggman said. "Mephiles caught up with me right before you were delivered here. He has requested to stay here and help me complete my experiment."

"Really...?" Tyler skepticized.

"Of course." Mephiles said _(still without a mouth)_. "Dr. Eggman kept me safe while I was confined in that hideous Scepter. It is only fair that I repay him by participating in the experiment that he had meant for me."

It didn't take a lot of brainpower to realize that Mephiles had no intention of allying himself with Eggman for long, and to be honest, Tyler felt much safer with Eggman in control. At least Eggman hadn't tried to kill him. _Not yet._

"So refresh my memory; what was this experiment again?" Tyler asked, tearing his eyes away from Mephiles' stare.

"Ah yes! The Bioelectric Coil Converter. As I've said previously, I need to combine your energy with Mephiles' energy to create a powerful balance, or an 'equilibrium.' If I can extract your 'light' and purify it, then that power alone could be enough to power a small city. But if I connect it with Mephiles' 'dark,' then the possibilities could be endless."

"When is this happening?" Tyler asked nervously.

"Why not immediately?" Mephiles' suggested. "I'm quite interested in seeing this so-called 'light' energy."

"Why not indeed." Eggman agreed. The acrylic tube rose up into the ceiling, and the robot that had escorted Tyler began pushing him towards the small circular platform. Tyler dug his heels into the floor, but it didn't slow him down a bit. He was roughly shoved onto the platform as the tube slid downward again, trapping him inside. He looked above him at the network of holes and tubes in the ceiling, waiting to absorb any energy he released. The platform under his feet was made out of tiny crystalline hexagons put together like a puzzle. Whenever Tyler shifted his weight from foot to foot, the hexagons he had put his weight on turned blue. It was almost like the giant piano keys at the F.A.O. Schwartz toy store, the one that people could walk on, and the keys would light up and play music. His fun little memory stopped when all of the hexagons turned yellow and began pulsating.

Each pulse from the platform vibrated through his body like an all-over muscle massage. As the pulses became more and more concentrated, a weblike network of blue light traced patterns across his skin, making him look like a glowing blue roadmap. At first, Tyler thought that they were his blood vessels and capillaries, but then found it more likely that the glittering blue lights were tracing his nervous system. A final burst of excited molecules from the platform below sent Tyler's mind into a white haze as a massive shock of energy exploded out of him.

...

Eggman had to shield his eyes from the sudden outpour of energy from Tyler's system. What did it look like? Was it red? Now blue? Now yellow, or purple? He couldn't tell, the very molecules inside the acrylic tube seemed to shine with a lacquered candyshell brilliance, magnified by the stained-glass effect of the blue trails of nerve pulses. It was very abstract and unsure. There were waters above and fires below, twisting, turning, full of will and thought, but towards what? Life or death? Achievement or failure? The Left and the Right both forgive the Middle for squatting between them unannounced. The chicken came before the egg and decided to cross the road, only to have its motives questioned. Paper somehow beats Rock in a surprising turn of events. Life gave him lemons, but he threw the lemons back until Life fell down. All of Tyler's thoughts and opinions radiated from him like a spectrum, knocking into each other and gaining more energy as they moved. This caused a chain reaction throughout the cylinder, which was absorbed by the holes and pipes in the ceiling, filling the BCC with kinetic energy.

The glass tube began to crack, releasing jets of unfiltered thought out into the room, only to dissolve like glitter. Several screens flashed bright red in warning of the major power overload. Eggman flipped a switch to stop the catalyst from allowing any more of Tyler's energy to be absorbed, or else the BCC would become too full and explode. The light faded into a fragile shimmering tissue of subconscious memory, before it too dissipated into the air. Tyler slumped over, completely spent, and spilled onto the floor as the tube raised into the ceiling once again.

Mephiles calmly walked over to him and prodded him with his foot. "He will live." he decided.

"Good," Eggman said, clapping his hands with glee. "These are the exact results I wanted! This boy has so much energy that the BCC's tanks are already full! I shall have to build a larger set of containment chambers if I'm going to get as much power as possible."

...

Tyler's brain had projected undiluted thoughts and feelings into the environment, exhausting nearly all of the kinetic energy created from nerve pulses throughout his body. Although Eggman hadn't completely understood what he had seen, the lights and colors that had emanated from Tyler was an exact model of his subconscious thought process. The stress temporarily fried his brain, so when he regained consciousness on Eggman's floor, he had no recollection as to how he had gotten there. But the cold metal floor against his face felt good, so he didn't busy himself with standing back up.

"EggNurse, relocate the _Avius _to his cell and administer any necessary medical treatment." Tyler heard Eggman order, and was vaguely annoyed that Eggman didn't use his name. Tyler was a person, not just an _Avius_.

"There will be no need for that, Doctor. I can escort the _Avius _myself." Mephiles said. Tyler's eyes snapped open.

"No need for that, I'm fine," Tyler said as he scrambled to his feet, but he had not regained his balance in time before he fell again.

"You are obviously affected from post-arderic stress," Eggman said. "Mephiles, please get him out of here."

Tyler attempted to stand one more time, and finally stayed on his two feet without toppling. He swayed over to the door as another robot opened it for him, and walked through without waiting for Mephiles to accompany him. The door shut behind him. Glad that he was alone, he calmly walked down the narrow hallway back to his cell before he felt another cold draft near him. He whirled around to face Mephiles, who had somehow appeared behind him without opening the door.

"I'm perfectly capable of going back to my room. You don't need to follow me," Tyler insisted.

"You seem intent on avoiding me. Why is that?" Mephiles said, taking several steps toward him. Tyler stumbled backwards, having still not recovered his motor skills.

"Oh gosh, let me see," Tyler said sarcastically. "Maybe it's because you tried to blow up my friend and I earlier, right after the Scepter broke? Excuse me for not exactly warming up to you."

"That is still no reason to be evasive." He continued walking towards him, forcing Tyler to walk backwards down the hall.

"Stop antagonizing me. You're purposely making me uncomfortable...just like you did while you were still in the Scepter. I'd appreciate it if you would just leave me alone."

"I was not aware that you were clairvoyant enough to sense my presence." Mephiles said, cocking his head to one side. "You are becoming slightly more and more interesting. Are all humans like you?"

"No, Eggman is human too, I suppose. Now back off." Tyler turned his back on him, only to find Mephiles in front of him again.

"You don't have to fear me. I am simply an unstable chemical reaction, formerly contained in a hateful paper weight, willing to help the Doctor who intended on using my talents for the greater good."

"Are you trying to win Miss America with that speech? It might've fooled Eggman, but he's not exactly the most intelligent person around. You want something that only Eggman can get you, so you're going to play by his rules until--" Tyler's legs were knocked out from underneath him. Before he fell, Mephiles grasped him by the neck and pushed him up against the wall, making his collar pinch.

"You are absolutely right." Mephiles said, softly enough to not be overheard. "I have no intention of staying with this idiotic human any longer than I have to. But," he continued, glaring unblinkingly into Tyler's face, "Once the time comes where Eggman will no longer have any importance to me, I will be in control. So it would be prudent to stay on my good side. Or rather, my less...violent side." He swept Tyler's bangs out of his eyes to see him better. "Understand?"

* * *

**REVIEW!**


	11. Oxidation

Oxidation

The silvery jet that Tails piloted, _The Dart_, cleanly cut through the foggy air above Westopolis towards the Amistead mountain range, where the Eggshuttle was docked according to Tails' radar. The Amisteads were rather unusual looking mountains made of rusty red stone, periodically streaked with pink or burgundy striations, lining narrow canyons that wound their way through the range. They were sparsely decorated with wild bushes that clung to their sheer slopes, and most of the mountains leveled off into a mesa. Many of them were semi-dormant volcanoes, occasionally discharging a small amount of lava from their diminutive pockets of magma inside of them that had refused to cool.

"What is your **problem**?" Knuckles reprimanded Sonic. "You **always** have to be in the center of a fight, and you **always** drag Tyler into it!"

"Woah, hold on. That's not true, and even if it was, does it really matter? We always get him back." Sonic said, turning around in his seat to look at him.

"Eventually." Knuckles muttered, rolling his eyes.

"What was that?"

"I said **eventually**. Do you realize how long it takes you to save people? You take the most convoluted route to get most fun out of it. It's like a big race to you, with the rescuer's glory as the gold medal at the end. Remember when you tried to save Amy from the Egg Carrier a few years ago? That could've taken me five minutes! It took you nearly two days with all of the detours you took."

"You're not exactly the one to talk on the subject of protecting things, Mister Guardian."

"What the hell do you mean by that?"

"I have to use both hands to count how many times the Master Emerald has been stolen from you. And it's Eggman stealing it almost every time! And sometimes, he doesn't even just take it, he tricks you into letting him take it. Repeatedly. You'd think you would've learned by now to superglue that hunk of rock to its pedestal, or something. And where is the Master Emerald now, anyway? I think you're losing your touch."

Knuckles whacked Sonic in the back of the head. "How's **that** for losing my touch?"

"Them's fightin' words." Sonic said, unbuckling his seatbelt.

"Bring it," Knuckles invited, unbuckling his seatbelt also.

Tails made _The Dart_ roll in the air, tossing around Sonic and Kuckles inside of it like beads in a maraca.

"Sit down and shut up." Tails mumbled.

The Amisteads had only one claim to fame: Red Mountain. For years, Eggman had used Red Mountain as an outpost to give his surplus mechas something to do. He had blown away half of the mountain to create another factory, using the mountain's volcanic core to power his machines. However, a major eruption damaged the factory, rendering it unusable. Although repairs could've been easy, Eggman didn't feel like fixing it, leaving the factory to rot. Red Mountain remained blighted by the artificial parasites of unused smokestacks and concrete buttresses of the factory. The mountain still spewed steam into the air, shaping a permanent gray cloud over it, where the Eggshuttle how hid.

...

Much to Tyler's dismay, Eggman decided to move everyone to the manufactory built into the mountain below them. Since the BCC's chambers would need to be emptied and converted, nothing else could be accomplished for the day until Eggman rebuilt a larger set. So it seemed like a capital idea to spend the rest of the afternoon and following night in the abandoned factory to unwind, and take advantage of the unused resources that he'd left behind.

The Eggshuttle slowly descended to Red Mountain's summit, and when they were close enough, an octagonal antigrav platform lowered the three of them onto the earth. Tyler looked around; Red Mountain may have been beautiful once, but it was hard to discern from all of the steam belching out of the concrete pillars of the foundry. He also couldn't turn his head a full 180 degrees without catching Mephiles' eye. The disconcertingly demonic Hedgehog was continuing to pretend that he agreed with Eggman's plans, while remaining redoubtable in Shadow's stolen image. As their platform continued to drop, a metal blast door slowly opened beneath them on the mountain's surface, allowing them to enter. It was dark momentarily, but Eggman pressed some sort of command into the platform's console, igniting the lights. The antigrav platform softly landed on the floor of the docking station.

"Welcome to Base SA1RM." Eggman announced as he stepped off of the floating belvedere, his voice echoing around the room. The docking station was large enough to hold several aircrafts, but it was empty at the moment. "I don't usually entertain guests, so I hope you'll pardon the mess. It's been a while since I've visited this place. Allow me to show you the habitué quarters."

After marching through several corroded hallways, Eggman forced Tyler to stop in front of a unremarkable brown metal door. "Here's the guest suite. After you," he said, opening the door and roughly shoving him inside. He slammed the door and barked some orders to his cronies. After a mechanical whirring sound, a blazing white light accompanied by a fizzing noise could be seen through the door jamb. Tyler could only assume that they were welding a lock on the door.

The room was unlit, so he ran his hand along the wall to find a switch. After a few seconds of searching, he located the plastic tab and flicked it. A bare lightbulb hanging in the center of the room illuminated the small space with a sickly yellow glow. The room was fashioned out of grimy concrete, with exposed pipes along the ceiling. Every so often, one of the pipes dripped, adding to a moldy puddle on the floor that trickled into a small drain. A security camera was affixed in the corner, staring at him with attenuate condescension, as if to say '_Ha! I can see you! You can't do anything!_'

Heavy metal shelves occupied the right wall, full of plastic crates of surplus material. Tyler went to them and opened one of the lids, grimacing slightly at the smell of stale packaging. Inside of it were coils of fiber optic cable. He closed it and popped open another lid, this time finding dark green canisters that looked similar to fire extinguishers. He took one out and held it in the light to read the label. 'Epoxipuff' it read, apparently some sort of industrial foam used to seal leaks. He put the canister back and dragged out a crate off of a shelf near the floor. He pushed it against the far wall and sat down on it, and began to think.

...

_The Dart_ landed on top of Red Mountain amid the cloud of steam billowing from the foundry below. The humidity condensed against the windows of the jet, fogging them up with droplets of water.

"Do we have a plan?" Knuckles asked as the cockpit opened, allowing more sticky air to frizz out their quills and fur.

"Sorta," Tails admitted. "The last rescue mission kinda went well, so I thought we should just stick to that plan."

"Gotcha."

"How do we get inside?" Sonic asked.

"Over there," Tails pointed to the blast door in the red stone, "is our best bet of getting inside." Tails rummaged around under his seat and pulled out a small black cube with a spike sticking out of it and an antenna on top. "Go stick this into that maintenance box over there," he said, now pointing to a flat metal rectangle next to the blast door. Sonic jumped out of the jet and landed at the box. He opened it and stabbed the device into the circuitry.

"Is that right?" Sonic asked.

"Yep, that's good." Tails confirmed. "Hold on a second." He began to furiously type away at his computer, linking his console with the device that Sonic had just planted. The Red Mountain base was one of Eggman's older structures, meaning that it didn't have the type of security to block out Tails' newer hacking devices. The antenna received the signal and ordered the blast doors to open. "Alright, you're in! Good luck guys." The cockpit swung shut, and The Dart alighted off of the mountain to draw Eggman's attention away from the intruders.

"Let's get going." Knuckles grumbled, and they both jumped down into the dark hole.

...

Tyler was proud of his new plan, and was amazed that he thought of it as quickly as he did. He sat on his crate with a tray of food on his lap, with his back towards the security camera. The food was a simple microwaveable meal in a flimsy plastic rectangle, containing a lump of chicken, mashed potatoes, applesauce, and pudding (or at least, he hoped it was applesauce. The light was too dim). At first, Tyler thought that this seemed rather fancy for prison food, but then surmised that the food might be drugged to make him easier to manage.

He cut the chicken into tiny pieces and stuffed them into his mouth, and chewed them to a pulp, but didn't swallow. Instead, he shoved it over into his cheek like a squirrel would do to an acorn, and put the mashed potatoes and applesauce into the remaining space. Then he stood up and clutched his stomach, still with this back to the camera. He made loud groaning noises, as if he was sick, and coughed the food from his mouth onto the floor with a wet _plop_. Hopefully, Eggman would think he'd just thrown up, and send an someone to assist him.

...

"Oh dear," Eggman muttered to himself as he watched Tyler wretch in his cell. "I knew that EasyMeal had gone bad. I'm fortunate I decided to give it to the boy instead of eating it myself."

...

Tyler slowly lurched over to the shelves of plastic crates and sagged against them, hoping that he still looked ill from the camera's point of view. He heard a muffled scraping noise as the door was unlocked. It opened, and in entered his medical aid.

The robot was bulky and humanlike from the waist-up, with scratched green paint and claws for hands. The waist-down was comprised of two tanklike treads for mobility. This robot was obviously not made for medical treatment; since Eggman usually didn't keep his prisoners alive for very long, it wasn't as if he needed a permanent nurse. It carried a first aid kit in its clawed hand, and a nurse's cap was pinned onto the robot's head for a humorous effect. Tyler looked at the camera with an expression that read '_I'm glad you find this funny._'

"Hello. How. Are you. Feeling to. Day?" The robot said, adding unnecessary pauses in its speech. It must have been recently reprogrammed from a fighting mecha to a therapeutic one; it seemed to long for a target to shoot instead distributing medication.

"I'm not feeling well at all," Tyler said, making a dramatic pained face and clutching his stomach.

"Let us. See what. I. Have for you." it said. It opened its first-aid kit with difficulty (clawed hands aren't made to open clasps) and searched around inside of it. After a few moments, it pulled out a bottle of pills.

"Thanks," Tyler said, yanking the bottle out of the robot's grip. He purposefully dropped it onto the floor, where it rolled across the room. "Could you get that for me? I'm afraid I'll vomit again if I bend over." Tyler asked.

"Of cou. Rse." it said. It rolled over to the bottle and swiveled downward on its hip joint to pick it up. Tyler quickly pulled out a can of Epoxipuff and sprayed the robot's treads with it. A dark froth issued out in a jet, sticking to the metal. The foam sank in between the metal plates of the treads and expanded, popping it apart. The mecha was still concerned with picking up the bottle of pills, not noticing that the foam was hardening and clogging its only way to move. Tyler rifled through it's first aid kit, hoping to find anything that could help him.

As he pushed away more bottles of medicine and packages of bandages, his fingers clasped around a short, slender rod with a tiny tab on the side. He pushed the tab up with his thumb, and a thin razor of pink light poked out of the end. It took a moment for him to realize that this was some sort of laser scalpel. He ran to the door (the mecha was still trying to pick up the bottle while firmly cemented to the floor) and jabbed the scalpel's glowing blade into the door jamb where the doorknob's locked bolt was. Nothing happened for a moment, but then an acrid smell burned his nose, followed by a thin trail of smoke as the scalpel cut through the lock. The resistance against the blade melted away, and he opened the door.

...

Sonic dropped lightly into the docking station, landing upright on his feet on a cement floor. Knuckles landed next to him, somewhat less gracefully. Above them, the blast door slid closed.

"Alright, let's get this over with," Knuckles said, punching his fist into his other hand. They bolted out of the room into a wide passage. The walls were made of panels of interlocking metal, heavily corroded at their seams with thick orange rust. Exposed pipes ran along the floor and near the ceiling, also rusted, with jagged stalactites of hardened minerals hanging from them like icicles. Every few seconds, a burst of steam would issue out of a pipe in a loud, hissing jet. The air tasted of oxidation and burning chemicals. Lightbulbs were attached to the ceiling, surrounded by wire cages, casting a filmy orange light.

"This place is a dump," Sonic commented. He jerked away from the wall as a jet of steam shot out.

They continued down the passage, their footsteps clanging dully on the dirty floor, and reached a 3-way intersection. Before they could decide which direction to continue, two groups of mechas from both ends of the corridors showed up. They were roughly egg shaped, with wide domelike upper hemispheres and smaller, more knoblike bottom halves. Seperating the two halves were whirling metal blades that spun around fast enough to propel them through the air like helicopters. These mechas must have been here since the manufactory's origins, since they were just as rusted as everything else. Sonic had seen them before, _What were they called? EggCleaves?_

Sonic jumped up against the wall, kicked off of it, and landed on top of an EggCleave while simultaneously curling into a razor sharp ball of quills. He burrowed through the circuitry and came out the other side as the EggCleave lost control and lodged its blades in the wall. Knuckles ducked under another EggCleave's spinning scythes and punched upwards, bouncing it off of the ceiling and striking as it came back down, his foot penetrating through it. Meanwhile, two mechas had attempted to slice Sonic at the same time. They came from opposite directions and spun right for his neck before he leaned backwards slightly, narrowly avoiding them. They crashed against each other, their blades entangling in a shower of sparks, and fell to the floor.

Knuckles grabbed the smaller knoblike half of an Eggcleave and hurled the entire mecha like a throwing star, cutting through at least two of its comrades. The number of robots dwindled until Sonic obliterated the final one by dropkicking it over to Knuckles, who caught it on his spikes.

"Well, that was fun," Sonic said, stepping over the spilled oil that had begun to pool. "Should we split up now?"

"Yep, that sounds like a good idea." he replied. Knuckles took the branching hallway to the left, while Sonic took the right. As they split up, the 'Prisoner Escaping' alarm began to blare.

...

Tyler pushed the door open and quickly darted into the hall. Eggman would know that he had escaped, and any moment now, an alarm would go off. His heart thudded between his ribs, both from terror and stubborn determination. A burst of steam gushed out of a pipe, making him yelp in surprise. He stayed close to the center of the hall to avoid any other jets of boiling gas. Sure enough, a 'Prisoner Escaping' alarm crackled to life over the intercom, alerting any and all robots that he was out of his cell. _Great_.

He turned a corner in the hall and came near a security camera. Just as the alarm went off, it came to life. It swiveled around on its tiny platform, cracking off hanging spikes of rust that had accumulated there. It stopped moving when it saw Tyler, and a tiny cylinder unfolded from under its base. There was a shrill sound, like the flash of a camera reloading, as the tiny cylinder began to glow. Tyler recognized it as the same type of weapon that Eggman's lobster mecha had, and jumped out of the way in time before an beam of blue-white light shot out, dissipating against the floor and spraying glints of sparks from the impact.

The camera reloaded its laser and fired again. Tyler wasn't very fast, and both blasts had grazed him closely. He quickly ran up the hall as far from the camera as possible, only to meet another one. This time he wasn't fast enough, and the camera shot him in the knee, knocking it out from underneath him. The nerve endings in his leg flickered off for a moment like a faulty flashlight, then slowly came back to life as he quickly scrambled backwards between the two cameras.

Both cameras knew that he was between them, but they couldn't turn far enough to fire at him. Tyler was momentarily relieved that his knee would be okay, but then had to focus on the issue of making it past the cameras before a squadron of robots showed up.

...

Knuckles found the cameras significantly more of an annoyance than a threat. He was used to radiation exposure from guarding the Master Emerald, so the occasional sting from the stunning lasers didn't affect him any more than a flick on the nose did. He simply jumped up to the cameras regardless of how many bolts of energy struck him and punched away. There were a lot of cameras to obliterate, so he got creative with how he destroyed them; on one occasion, he ripped the camera from the wall and hurled it at an adjacent camera. On another occasion, he grabbed the actual laser by the muzzle and blasted the other cameras with it.

"That oughta do it." he said resolutely. A few more EggCleavers came at him from down the corridor, but he blasted them too. Still feeling creative, he picked up a defeated mecha and tore off the hemispheres, leaving the rotating blades intact. He decided to hold on to it for the time being.

...

Sonic didn't notice the cameras in the hallways he was in, due to the unique robots he ran into. He was running through another bleak hall when a new robot blocked his way. It looked like a cross between a crustacean and a snake, if that could be imagined. The thing had a long flexible metal neck with a dangerous-looking nozzle on the end. The neck was attached to a small metal sphere, which connected it to sharp, angular crablike legs that ended in scythe-like points. The metal was shiny and new, so it must've been brought to the factory recently.

The neck lunged forward and vented a stream of flame like a welding torch, charring the flaky metal that Sonic had been standing on, mixing the smell of moldering rust with igniting gas. He tried to jump against the wall and then ricochet off of it, but a pointed spearlike limb of the robot stabbed out at him, puncturing the wall's panel. He rolled around it and attempted to avoid the thing altogether, but another robot of the same kind came down the hall, trapping him between the two.

Both robots shot gouts of flame at the same time. He jumped up and grabbed onto a hanging lightbulb, swinging off before it too was scorched, making the lightbulb burst into charred slivers of glass. He landed and ran underneath the robot's spherical body. The neck bent down to roast him, and he grabbed it by the nozzle and dashed back to it's comrade. The other robot tried to burn him too, but he also grabbed it around the neck and quickly tied the two mechas together. They tugged against one another, both convinced that Sonic was still holding onto them. It wasn't long before they ripped each other's necks off. Enjoying himself, Sonic left them and continued.

...

Tyler really needed to keep moving. If he remained stuck in between the the cameras, then it would only be a matter of time before Eggman caught up with him. Besides, the cameras had clearly seen him, so Eggman probably knew exactly where he was. He stood up gingerly, testing the reliability of his leg, and decided that it was good enough to run on.

He faced the end of the hall and waited until the camera had swiveled away from him, and dashed as fast as he could. The camera spotted him and fired, skimming his heel. He kept on running, refusing to stop until he made it to the sharp bend in the passage. More blue blasts brushed past, coming incredibly close to immobilizing him. He threw himself around the corner and stopped with his hands on his knees, panting.

He had come down to a long, dead-ended hallway with a single door on the left side. The security cameras had frozen over with corrosion; they didn't turn to look at him or charge up their weapons. He was safe for a very short while, and he knew it. It was best to continue on. As Tyler jogged towards the door, he was happy to see that it had a normal, turnable door handle. He reached out to it, but froze as he felt a cold gust behind him. The 'Prisoner Escaping' alarm squeaked into an ear-piercing electronic whine before abruptly clicking off. Tyler whirled around to the entrance of the hallway in fear, but Mephiles wasn't there. He sighed in relief and went back to opening the door, but froze again.

A light at the end of the hallway had snapped off for no reason. Then another one, right next to it, turned off. Then another. And another. A wall of lurid darkness advanced towards him as each light broke one-by-one. He panicked and frantically turned the door handle, but it was locked. Tyler pulled out the laser scalpel and stabbed it into the door frame, frantically sawing away at the bolt. The aphotic shade came closer and closer, and he could now hear the individual tinkling sound of the lightbulbs' fragments as they hit the floor, ripped from their sockets by an unseen force. The bolt gave away, and he hurled himself into the next room as he felt something claw at the hood of his jacket. The door slammed shut behind him, without waiting for Tyler to do it himself. The thing on the other side had closed it.

...

Sonic covered his ears as the 'Prisoner Escaping' alarm morphed into a squeal of feedback, until it bluntly shut off. He shook his head, hoping that the fierce ringing in his ears would subside. The entire base blacked out briefly, and when the lights returned, the fire-spewing mecha that he'd been fighting was collapsed on the floor. He prodded it with the toe of his sneaker, but it didn't respond. Slightly bothered, he paced down the hall until he met another robot, which was also slumped on the ground, completely inert. He broke out into a full run, hoping that at least one mecha was still active enough to challenge him.

...

Tyler had wandered into some sort of generator room after he evaded the dark, obfuscous thing in the hallway, which had felt very much like Mephiles. The chamber was probably the largest in the base; the ceiling was vaulted forty feet above him, and the walls were very far apart. It was just as orange and dank as the other rooms and halls, but on a larger scale. In the center of the room was a mountain of machinery, comprised of whirring gears and pounding pistons, built into a hulking mass of black metal and steam. It was roughly rectangular in shape, like an upright brick. A network of cables and tubes sprouted from the top of the generator like streamers popping out of a party favor, criss-crossing around each other into the roof to supply the base with electricity. The walls had giant industrial fans set into them that slowly rotated, casting spinning shadows on the floor. Some sort of iridescent yellow glow permeated through the air from the generator's base. Tyler's closer inspection found that it was a yellow Chaos Emerald, sheathed behind a transparent window.

Over the loud humming and hissing of the machine, Tyler heard the sound of clapping. It was slow and mocking, and it didn't take him long to guess who was lauding him. Eggman stepped out from behind the generator with another humanoid mecha in tow.

"I am simultaneously impressed and irritated by your resourcefulness. I usually waste my time on Animals, not humans, so forgive me for underestimating you."

"Oh, don't worry about it," Tyler said, using sarcasm to stretch out the time he had before Eggman ordered his robot to attack him. "If you could just show me the exit, I'll be gone, and not impose on your hospitality." He hoped that his minimal vocabulary skills could hold Eggman off a little while longer.

"Can't you stay?" Eggman asked, countering Tyler's sarcasm with his own. "I've got your new lodgings all arranged. You'll be quite cozy, I assure you."

"No thanks."

"I insist." Eggman snapped his fingers, and the mecha seized, locking its metal arms around him. Tyler retaliated by pulling out his laser scalpel and slashing at the metal limbs, but it only left harmless brown marks.

"EggPrehend, take the _Avius_ to its new cell." Eggman ordered, gesturing to another door across the room. "Make sure he's comfortable." he sneered. He snatched the laser scalpel out of Tyler's hand and strutted out of the room.

Tyler struggled against the machine that held him, but it predictably had no effect. The humanoid mecha turned around and marched towards a door that neither Eggman nor Tyler had walked through. It slid open, and beyond the threshold, he could see some sort of cage... _Oh no. Oh no no no no._ The cage had several machines with sharp, pointed needles sticking into it, attached to mechanical arms that were capable of mobility once activated. He didn't know what the needles did, but come **on**. They were needles; what could they possibly do that **wouldn't** hurt him? If Eggman became displeased with Tyler's behavior...or worse, if Mephiles was displeased...

There was a rushing, whirling sound like a very large bird taking flight. The robot suddenly jerked violently at a loud clanging sound, and dropped Tyler to the floor. He rolled out of the way before it could fall on him, landing face first. A gigantic set of blades, radiating from a central point, was stuck in the robot's back.

...

Knuckles could feel the abstract glare of a nearby Chaos Emerald against the back of his mind, alerting its presence to it's Master's Guardian. He followed the invisible glow of the gem, using it as a guide through the corridors. When the 'Prisoner Escaping' alarm screeched into a horrible wailing sound, the Emerald's power faltered for a moment. The lights of the base briefly blacked out, and when they returned, the Emerald's radiation came with it, just as strong.

The robots were no longer active; they were all lying on the floor, frozen in a state of inactivity. _Why did the blackout shut them off? And that screeching noise..._ He heard the sound of footsteps pattering against the floor ahead of him. He crouched down, preparing to attack the oncoming enemy. As it came closer, Knuckles recognized the sound of Sonic's sneakers. He relaxed out of his offensive stance.

"Hey Knuckles. Find anything?" he asked.

"Nope. Just this thing," he said, holding up the blades of the an EggCleave he destroyed.

"Me neither. And what's with the mechas? It looks like they've stopped working over here, too. I was hoping that they were deactivated only on my end."

Knuckles noticed a black scorch mark on Sonic's glove. "Run into trouble?"

"Oh man, you should've seen it! Eggman's got these new fire-shooting crab things! Too bad they're all inactive now. They were fun to play with."

"I'm glad you're enjoying yourself." Knuckles said, rolling his eyes. "I think there's a Chaos Emerald somewhere around here. I was on my way to check."

"Cool, I'll come with. I don't have anything better to do." Sonic said as he kicked an inert mecha aside.

Knuckles nodded, and they moved ahead towards the point that he believed the Emerald was radiating from. The hallway leading towards the generator room was unusually dark, and a few degrees colder than the rest of the base. They both stopped at the hallway's entrance, momentarily put off by the unlighted passage. They shrugged and went through anyway, knocking aside fragments of blown lightbulbs as they went past.

They opened the door and entered the main generator chamber. Sure enough, the hazy radiance of a yellow Chaos Emerald shone from the generator's bottom. A mecha was leaving the room with its back towards them, so Knuckles hurled the EggCleave's blades at it. It whirled across the room and stuck into the base of the mecha's neck with a satisfying _clunk_ as the blades sank between its joints. It dropped whatever it was holding and landed face first on the floor.

Sonic and Knuckles were both surprised to see the thing that the robot had dropped was the reason they had come to the base in the first place. Tyler scooted away from the fallen mecha, staring at the blades in confusion.

"Well, you killed two birds with one stone, Knuckles. You found a Chaos Emerald **and** Tyler." Sonic congratulated. Tyler's head turned to them at the sound of Sonic's voice, and he ran over to them.

"It's about time you guys got here!" He said, hugging Knuckles tightly. Tyler immediately let go, embarrassed, and quickly changed the subject. "Did you run into trouble or something? I've been stuck here for a while."

"Nope, just standard run-in-and-beat-the-bolts-outta-robots sorta thing. You okay?" Sonic asked.

"Yep." Tyler said shortly. "You?"

"Sure. Let's just grab the Emerald, and we'll get out of here." Sonic strode over to the viewing window covering the Emerald and shattered it with his elbow. He reached in and yanked the gem out. The generator went quiet for a moment, its pistons and cogs whirring into inactivity. Then the back-up power turned on, and it resumed its humming.

...

In the power surge caused by the loss of the Emerald, Tyler felt **It**. **Mephiles**. **He** was in the room. A black puddle oozed out from beneath the generator, detaching itself from the shadows. It slid under Sonic's foot and became tacky, causing him to stumble in the sudden friction. The Emerald slipped out of his hand and bounced across the floor to Tyler's feet, dinging like a wind chime at each bounce. The black plashet leaked towards the Emerald, forming a clawlike limb as it slithered towards it. Tyler picked up the Emerald before Mephiles could grab it.

Instantly, his muscles locked up as Chaos energy spread through his body, arcing sparks between his fingers and causing him to tremble violently. Mephiles' dark form boiled and vaporized, not being able to stand the crammed energy while in his liquid state. The Chaos had nowhere to go; since Tyler was already an _Avius_, the extra space within his body was already full of energy, causing an electrical traffic jam.

_(?!?!?!?!buzz?!?!?!?)_

The Chaos backed up and rushed to where it came from. Tyler let go of the Emerald, dropping it to the floor, where it _dinged_ another musical note as it struck the metal.

"Geez, did you see that?" Sonic said, unsticking his foot from the floor. "What was with that black stuff?"

"Umm...are you okay?" Knuckles asked Tyler.

He didn't respond for a moment.

"Tyler?"

"...He was....curious?" Tyler said, staring at the spot Sonic had tripped on.

"Who was?" Sonic asked.

"...Mephiles was...he wanted to see what would happen if I touched a Chaos Emerald..."

_So, what does that mean? Did Mephiles make this too easy for me? I mean, those laser cameras did seem a little slow... Did he want me to make it to this room, just to see what would happen if I touched an Emerald? Why would he do that? _What possible reason could Mephiles have to facilitate Tyler's escape?

"Hey, Tyler," Sonic said. "Are you sure you're okay? You're looking a little paler than usual."

Tyler shook his head quickly to focus. "Yeah, I'm cool. Can we go now?"

**

* * *

**

**Author's Note: Okay peeps, If you want this story to continue, then I'm going to have to absorb the magical powers that Reviews grant me when someone comments on the story. In short; REVIEW THE CHAPTERS! Even if you flame it (and I wouldn't be surprised), then review anyway. **

**BTW: I'm gonna give huge mad props to Frozen Nitrogen for verbally beating the crap out of me when he saw the orignal draft of this chapter (believe me, it wasn't pretty). Without him, this chapter would've sucked BIG TIME.**


	12. Obsolescent

Obsolescent

The main control room of the Eggshuttle wasn't as sterile and tidy as Eggman had usually preferred it. The shiny, greenish metal of the circular room had more scuffed track marks in it from incoming mechas than the janitorial robots had been able to wipe away. The machines themselves seemed wary and cautious of their creator, who had at random times grabbed the nearest mecha and hurled it against the far wall, throwing it hard enough to damage its circuitry.

To say that Eggman was 'angry' was just as much of an understatement as saying 'the sun is rather hot.' And it was typical of Eggman to let his frustration get the better of him. Earlier, he'd been reduced to tearing at his mustache, pounding at his keyboards, and otherwise throwing a deplorable tantrum. What kind of self-respecting tyrant couldn't even hold on to a prisoner for 24 hours? What was he doing wrong? How was he supposed to foresee that the brat would use Epoxipuff to immobilize his mechas? How was he supposed to know that despite having a ten hour head start, Sonic still found him, stolen his only Chaos Emerald, and severely damaged Red Mountain Base's security system?

A a white, plastic teardrop-shaped robot hovered too close within Eggman's reach.

"Doctor, it is now your scheduled dinner time. Do you wish to eat at thi--" The unfortunate mecha was lobbed against the wall, fueled by Eggman's rage. The last thing the mecha saw was the curved monitors and beeping lights of the computers before having its optical camera cracked as it struck the green metal wall.

The plasma monitor also reminded Eggman of his dinner, in its annoyingly cheerful voice that he'd programmed for it. The generic, holographic smiling face blurred out into three-dimensional space in front of him.

"Doctor, you know how much you **love** dinner! We've got all your favorites tonight! We think you could use a good meal to take your mind off of your humiliating defeat--" This too was cut off by Eggman, who typed in a command on his computer. A holographic plasma pistol appeared next to the face, firing at it. The face died in a loud, overdramatic way. It made Eggman feel slightly better, until he remembered why he was angry in the first place.

"Doctor." a voice said behind him.

"WHAT?" Eggman roared, spinning around in his seat. It was just Mephiles. Well, he supposed '**just**' wasn't the right word. Eggman wasn't stupid; he knew that Mephiles didn't want to be here any more than that adroit brat had, yet he stayed of his own will. He had even let the Doctor siphon off some of his 'dark' energy, and Eggman couldn't deny that he was pleased with the results. When Mephiles' 'dark' was dissolved in a fluid, and then converted into a gas, it created a very unusual---and rather dangerous---miasma, which he hoped he'd have the chance to use soon.

But what bothered Eggman about Mephiles (other than his naturally intimidating appearance) was the fact that he **thought**. The others, his enemies, never thought. They always acted on instinct, or at the spur of the moment, never really organizing themselves too far ahead, and Eggman had gotten used to this. Their plans were simple, their thoughts were simple. But not Mephiles, oh no. He calculated and formulated, weighed the odds, and chose the best outcome, standing in the sidelines while his ideas took effect. Mephiles had told him so; he had told him that he had planned all along to be released from the Scepter, and join Eggman in dominating not only this world, but others.

Eggman knew that Mephiles was trying to gain the Doctor's trust by confiding in his little scheme, but Eggman saw right through it, clear as glass. Mephiles was trying to disquiet him by proving just how thought out his plans were. But he wasn't scared; he'd come up with dozens of plans that were twice as convoluted (even if none of them succeeded).

"Is there something I could get you? A refreshment, perhaps?" he joked, poking fun at Mephiles' obvious lack of a certain facial feature. Mocking other people's handicaps usually made him feel better.

"No, thank you. I'm quite full." the monochrome hellion said. Eggman didn't want to think how that could have possibly worked.

"I was just about to get started on a second project," Eggman said. "I'd appreciate it if you would give me some privacy while I think."

"I apologize," Mephiles said. "I should have realized that you don't work well under pressure."

"What do you mean by that?" Eggman said, leaning forward and making his chair creak under the shift in weight.

"All I mean to say is that when the situation becomes unpredictable, you tend to lose control."

"Are you suggesting that the _Avius_ escaped because of **me**?" Eggman squawked, instantly inflaming his recent rage. "Because I seem to recall that you had ample opportunity to stop them yourself, or immobilize the prisoner, or prevent them from stealing the single Chaos Emerald I had in my possession!"

"You did not ask me to do any of those things. I assumed your beloved robots could handle the job, and succeed in what they were designed to do."

"And are you now questioning my abilities as a Robiticist? My mechas are the most advanced artificial beings on this planet, and several others."

"I urge you to relax, Doctor." Mephiles said calmly, holding his hands palm-up towards him. "I would not bring any of this up if I didn't have an idea myself."

Eggman's swelling tide of rage upon having his intelligence questioned shrank slightly. "You have an idea?"

"I **always** have an idea."

Eggman leaned back in his chair, his fingers tracing the outline of his mustache in thought. "I'm listening."

...

_There were eight. He was almost sure. But he could be wrong, since it was difficult to tell. He counted eight sides to the room, each wall comprised of one big rectangular mirror. That's what made it hard to count. The mirrors were specifically set up to be an optical illusion, to make him think that there weren't any mirrors at all. It was one big octagon. He saw himself, reflected thousands of times in the glass panels as he lay on the octagonal floor, huddled at the foot of one of them. One of the panels had a spiderweb of cracks across its surface. He wasn't alone in the room, but he couldn't see who was there. _

_There were eight. It was an octagon. With a cracked side._

But it made no sense to him what this meant. He woke up as Amy called him for breakfast.

...

The distance between Westopolis and the ruined Central City was roughly 954 metrioles, or 1,536 tracts. Since Sonic ran around 700 metrioles a second, it only took him about an hour and a half from Amy's house to Central City's outskirts.

According to the news station on Amy's television, several construction workers and machines had inexplicably vanished from their sites in Central City, leaving the remaining workers baffled as to where their fellows had went. Eggman's mechas had been seen skulking around the area, so it wasn't difficult to piece together a possible reason for the worker's disappearance. No bodies had been recovered yet, which may have been a good sign, had the perpetrator been anyone **but** Eggman.

The actual run had been rather boring once Sonic had crossed the Amistead range. He knew he didn't have much time to take detours through different Zones, so he stayed on the main highway. He noticed wistfully that there weren't any Rings floating about like they once had. The Administration for Public Safety and Progress had campaigned through all the Zones, picking up any Rings they could find and storing them in warehouses to distribute in cases of emergencies, natural disasters, and Animal welfare. While they may have had good intentions, Sonic didn't want to face a horde of mechas without a few spare Rings at his disposal.

The highway's concrete and tar surface became more uneven the closer he got the ruins, but that was to be expected. A few years ago, Central City had been completely wiped off the map by a peal of radiation from an orbiting space station, helmed by a malevolent species of aliens.

The Black Arms, the said alien race, came from a gigantic hive called the Black Comet, born from their father and leader, Black Doom. _They're just as creative at naming themselves as Eggman. Egg-robos, Black Comet, Egg Carrier, Black Doom, the list goes on and on. _Even though Black Doom and his legions of spawn were destroyed, the wound that they inflicted on the United Federation's capital city still lingered.

The gray, jagged remains of the city's skyline stabbed up at the horizon. Piles upon piles of concrete rubble and debris choked the devastated streets. The streets themselves, if they were still there, were cracked into huge dusty plates, their paint blistered into hard bubbles. Even though it had been a while since the explosion, the area still smelled like smoke. His fur stood on end a little bit from the harmless radiation that still lingered.

He ran into the city's perimeter, dotted by reconstruction crews who were **still** cleaning up the damage. Sullen workers toiled in dull yellow machines that scooped the warped stone and metal into piles and cleared them out. Sonic ran past camp after camp of volunteer rebuilders, each human and Animal more depressed looking the further they got into the city, colored a chalky gray that matched their surroundings. Being reminded of their lost friends and family every day wasn't exactly the best thing for their moods.

Sonic stopped at the largest camp. Several workers noticed him, but only one approached.

"Are you here 'cuz of the mechas?" The Zebra said.

"Yep." Sonic said. "I heard they were giving you guys some trouble. Can I talk to the guy in charge?"

"That's me." The Zebra said, wiping the dust off of his overalls to show him his name tag. Band the Zebra.

"Well, Band," Sonic said. "When was the last time you guys were attacked? Has anyone else disappeared?"

"Oh, not too long ago," Band said. While Sonic could understand that he was probably very depressed from working here, Band's slow, monotone speech was getting on his nerves. He wanted to get out of here as quickly as possible. "We were only tryin' to get to the center of the city, when they came out of nowhere. Carried Pete and his drillcart right off, they did. That was only...let's see," he rubbed gray dirt off of his wristwatch, "Only two hours ago."

"So they came from the center of the city?"

"Uh-huh."

"Thanks, I'll get right on it. See ya." He waved goodbye as he ran off, glad to be away from the forlorn construction workers. Now was the fun part; beating Eggman's drones into pulps of foil.

The further into the city, the worse it got, if that was imaginable. The buildings began to look more like jagged teeth than anything else. Some structures began to literally flake away; entire walls of homes stood apart from the rest of the building, warping over slightly like peeling paint. The radiation buzzed against his temples the closer he got, leaving a sour taste in his mouth, as if he'd just sucked on battery-flavored candy. Even the wind seemed damaged, as it blew through the empty streets, emitting a soft moan of pain. The smell of smoke began to mingle with the aroma of cloying metal.

The scraps of sidewalks and blank, windowless shells of skyscrapers faded into an enormous mound of twisted metal, forming a wall so high that it could've reached the fourth floor of the surrounding buildings, had they still stood. He could see individual cars, street signs, and slabs of concrete crushed together to create it. The wall of congealed metal must've formed the outer lip of the crater that the Black Arms created.

Sonic stared up at the barrier. He wasn't the greatest climber, but he supposed if he ran fast enough up the face of the wall, he'd probably make it through. But there was still the possibility that his foot might sink into the side, and if he tried to drill through it, it would probably collapse on him. _So, __then what?_

A cluster of flying mechas buzzed over the wall. _Oh. That's what._

They were wasp-like in design, and garishly colored with Eggman's usual scarlet and yellow paint job. Their double sets of synthetic wings beat against the air, holding their car-tire-sized bodies up off of the ground. Their six segmented limbs ended in tiny claws, and the end of their thorax narrowed into a sharp laser muzzle that doubled as a stabbing implement. Eggman had apparently improved upon his Buzzers' design.

Two of them fired at once, their stingers releasing red bolts of energy that steadily turned pink as it burned the air. Sonic sidestepped the blasts as the rest of them fired, releasing streaks of red and pink in his direction, knocking pieces of the scorched tarmac off twirling through the air. While the Buzzers may have been newer, it didn't mean that they were faster. Sonic jumped up while curling into a ball, spinning through the first two Buzzers and reducing them to scraps of yellow metal. While still in the air, he landed on top of a third Buzzer, who didn't feel him land. A fourth buzzer took aim and fired, but ended up destroying its comrade instead of its intended target. As Sonic launched off of the Buzzer before it exploded, he redirected his momentum into his right heel, bringing it down onto the carapace of the final Buzzer. Its wires and circuits snapped out the sides of its thorax with a satisfying crunch.

But before Sonic could relax, another wave of mechas came over the wall. They were the fire-shooting crablike mechas, which he had decided to call 'Krabs' for lack of a proper name. But the Krabs' advancement became more of an assistance instead of a threat; as they climbed down the vertical wall, their scythe-like legs stabbed into the side deep enough to support their heavy metal bodies. So what would an extra Hedgehog's weight hurt?

Sonic sprinted up to the wall's base towards the nearest Krab. It's hoselike neck snaked toward him, spraying a jet of flames, the smell of fermenting debris mixed with igniting kerosene. He dived underneath the heat and landed on its spherical body. He grabbed the mecha's neck and tied it like a pretzel around its legs, preventing it from roasting him. He spotted another Krab and attracted its attention. As it extended its hose towards him to fire, he grabbed the nozzle and jumped off, swinging from it like a rope.

He had swung hard enough to propel him onto another Krab, and then another, and another, climbing higher and higher up the wall, too fast for the robots to broil him alive. By the time he had reached the crest, all of the Krabs had crawled down to the ground below, unaware that he had already climbed past them.

He pulled himself up onto the narrow rim, clapping his hands together to dislodge the dust from his gloves. He stayed low to avoid being seen, if he hadn't been spotted already; blue Hedgehogs don't blend in to gray junk very well. The crater was gargantuan, a mile in diameter with sheer walls around the curved sides. The immense gray concave surface was nothing but fine dust, the result of a direct blast from the Eclipse Cannon. The wind had formed wavy tracks in the cinders, creating a miniature desert. From the sky, the crater may have resembled a giant gray thumb print. The pattern of ridges was broken every few yards by linear tracks, marking the passage of robots.

He could see activity in the deepest part of the crater, but it was too far away to tell exactly what was going on. All he could see were wisps of smoke and mounds of dug earth. Sonic sped down to the basin's floor, but much slower than he'd anticipated; the ashes made little purchase against the soles of his sneakers. He hid behind a pile of gray soil, hoping that Eggman wouldn't notice the trough he'd left behind. He peeked around the side.

He had found the missing construction workers, who were walking rather stiffly around the piles of ash they had dug up with their absconded machinery. Their knees didn't bend, and their heads were completely covered by metallic helmets with electronic visors. They looked rather painful to wear, and it was obvious that the helmets were controlling their actions. The yellow clunking masses of metal scraped their claws into the ground, scooping slag up into piles like the one Sonic hid behind, creating an enormous pit.

Eggman was surveying the excavation site in his flying pod, shouting various orders over a megaphone. Every time he'd give a new order ("Dig faster! And you, Canary! Add that to the pile!"), their visors' screens would change color, from red to green to blue, depending on the type of command. Eggman seemed very agitated. Sonic gave a small smirk as he realized that Eggman knew he was in the area, and was ushering his zombified construction team to hurry up whatever it was they were trying to salvage.

_Why would Eggman use zombified people instead of mechas? _Sonic thought. _Is it 'cuz of the radiation? That would make sense; maybe his mechas are too sensitive to the radiation. He could've built some new mechas that could withstand it, but that would've taken time, and he looks like he's in a hurry. What is he trying to find?_

Sonic didn't have to wait long to discover what they were hunting for. One of the worker's visors began to flash yellow, his arm rigidly pointing into the deep hole. Other workers joined around the edge, identically flashing and pointing.

"Alright, I get it. You found something." Eggman grouched. His pod zoomed over near the mouth of the pit, spraying dust in his wake, coating the surrounding workers in another gray layer.

"Will one of you idiots please scoop it out? It's not as if it's going to leap into my arms with all of you pointing at it."

A machine reached its telescopic digging utensil into the chasm. After a few moments, the arm retracted, carrying a shining object in its claws. The machine's arm swiveled over to Eggman and dropped the item onto his lap, also showering him with leftover dust. Eggman sneezed, causing the powder to fly off of his mustache.

"Well, Mephiles? Is this what you were looking for?" he called, rubbing his nose with one hand and holding the artifact with the other.

Sonic stiffened slightly behind the his pile. _Where have I seen that before? I __**know**__ I know it from somewhere..._

It was a dull, platinum crescent moon. Within its arch was a pearly black stone, held to it by pewter struts. Sharp spikes stuck out of the back of the crescent, as if someone had combined the sun and moon's symbols to create a pointy metallic ornament. A long length of thick silver chain hung off of the end, adorned with more large ornaments, though not as large as the moon. They also had onyx-like stones, but were flame-shaped instead.

"Indeed it is, Doctor. I recall **him** wearing the exact same chain."

Mephiles had been standing at the top of another pile, almost indistinguishable from the colorless waste. He fluidly slid down the slope on his feet. Not a speck of ash clung to his pelt, as if he repelled any sort of filth.

"Good," Eggman said, wiping his small glasses off. "Now that we have this ridiculous bauble, we can leave. I've received word that **Sonic**," he ground out his name, "is in the area. I've already dispatched some mechas to engage him, but I doubt they'll last long."

"No, they did not last long. Otherwise we wouldn't be enjoying his company, presently."

Mephiles paused, and the mass of piled slag exploded, throwing Sonic into the air. He landed solidly on his feet, his fur powdered gray.

"It seems we've been eavesdropped upon," Eggman smirked. "You've clearly forgotten proper etiquette, Sonic. It's rude to intrude on your superiors' conversations."

"Sorry, I was bored." Sonic shrugged. "Maybe if your mechas were built better, than I would still by busy playing with them, instead of watching you two hunt for junk in this giant sandbox."

"If it was entertainment you wanted, you only had to ask." Eggman said, dialing an order into his console.

The construction machines groaned to life, all of them turning in his direction. Their telescopic arms shot out at once, gouging the formerly smooth cinders where Sonic had stood. He ran up one of the arms' lengths and crouched into another spiny drill, perforating through the construction machine, oil spilling from its double fuel tanks. It ignited into a brilliant pillar of flame, kicking up more ashes into the air and pelting the other machines with shrapnel. Sonic backflipped away from the explosion onto another pile.

"Now that's more like it." Sonic called over the crackling of the fires. The other machines pushed at the pile he stood on, avalanching it over, and nearly burying the workers, who still stood motionless at the mouth of the hole.

This gave Eggman an idea. After quickly typing a command into his console, their visors turned orange. Slowly, they began to march towards the hole.

"Now Sonic, I insist that you cease attacking, or Central City will have to add several new casualties to its rather long list."

Sonic halted amid the burning machinery, considering his options. _Do I have time to ram into Eggman's pod before the construction workers fall in? _He hoped so. He jumped off the ground and kicked against Eggman's pod, hard. It zoomed away from him like a bird caught in wind tunnel and crashed against a construction machine. However, Eggman had pressed another button, and the zombified people toppled into the hole. _No!_

Sonic quickly ran to the pit's edge, and looked in. The hole wasn't as deep as he'd thought; maybe ten feet. Plus, the powdery ash at the bottom was very soft, cushioning their fall. He could see their thumbnails of orange visor light winking up at him. Eggman had been bluffing, but he'd created a diversion.

He heard a hissing sound, and quickly dodged out of the way of a beam of purple-white light, which ended up skewering another machine. Mephiles pointed his hand at Sonic and fired again, his blast kicking up dust from the ground. Sonic jumped over it towards Mephiles, hooking his fist downward and striking him across the face. His hand sank in a bit, as if Mephiles' skull was made of foam. He backflipped away from him back onto the ground.

"The Doctor **did** seem to be rather irritated by you," Mephiles said as the dent in his temple slowly filled back out. He shot several more lances of lurid violet light, but all of them were too slow. "I can see why."

"Likewise," Sonic said. He landed on a severed arm of a crane that was stuck into the soil, causing the other end to quickly spring upwards, flinging a clod of ash towards his assailant. Mephiles seemed to vanish in the puff of cinders, and Sonic was struck from behind, skidding into the ground. He quickly got back onto his feet and prepared himself for another attack, but Mephiles just stood there, motionless.

"Sorry, am I boring you?" Sonic jeered. Mephiles continued to stay silent, but a black puddle oozed out from underneath him, spreading out along the ground, staining the dirt an indigo-ebony color. The wet cinders rose up in columns, molding and shaping themselves as if invisible hands were pressing against them, giving them a form. They turned into smaller versions of Mephiles, half his height, but they had blank, pupilless eyes.

They rushed at Sonic all at once, their feet still connected to the ashen ground as they slid towards him. He punched out at them, knocking holes through their bodies, and they disintegrated. They didn't reform like he'd feared, but Mephiles just made more and more, giving Eggman time to flee the crater, with Black Doom's ornamental chain in hand.

One of the clones came up to him from behind and slashed its gloveless claws against his spines, but its talons crumbled away as soon as they touched him. Despite Mephiles not being able to express any emotions facially, it wasn't difficult to tell that he was frustrated with his minions' fragility. Sonic just stood there as the clones piled around him, doing more damage to themselves than to their target as they beat their limbs into dust, their quills breaking off from their own weight.

"You know what they say, Mephy," Sonic mocked, "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust."

"That will be a perfect epitaph for your tombstone." He sent out another violent violet blast, gouging out a deep divot of earth where Sonic had recently stood, destroying his minions in the process.

"Gotta work on your aim, bud." Sonic continued to joke. Mephiles blasted again, his mounting annoyance causing the force of his blasts to crystallize the ashes where they hit the ground, forming waist-high geometric obsidian spires. "Someone's getting a little testy," Sonic said in mock chastisement. Throughout the entire fight, Sonic noticed that Mephiles never blinked. Ever. Was it just for an intimidating effect, or did he really not possess eyelids?

Sonic weaved back and forth towards him, dodging more blasts, some of them grazing close enough to ruffle his fur. He scooped up a handful of cinders and tossed them into Mephiles' face. The ashes stuck to his scelera, and his attempts to wipe them off only created a bigger problem as he smeared them around his field of vision. He was totally blind now, and didn't have tear ducts to wash it off, nor eyelids to sweep it away.

"You're just a bad copy." Sonic said as Mephiles struggled with his face. His grayed-out eyes turned to Sonic's general direction, and he fired another stanchion of energy, but missed by a wide margin.

"You abominable...obnoxious....**hateful** Hedgehog!" Mephiles roared, completely balked by his blindness. His form began to twist and turn, his joints slowly leaking black steam. "I'll be back, and next time, you will not be given the chance to end things so anticlimactically." Mephiles evaporated from the outside in, his fur and skin boiling into liquid as his dark skeleton melted with it. The sticky fluid sank into the ground and vanished.

"Gross." Sonic was used to death threats, but Mephiles' seemed somewhat more certain, whereas Eggman's were simply the byproducts of another failed plan. _Mephiles made himself sound much more powerful when he was first released,_ Sonic thought. But, he seemed somewhat...squishy, like he wasn't dry and complete yet. And his minions were surprisingly weak, so weak that even Mephiles himself seemed shocked.

"Um...hello? Anyone up there?" called a rather confused voice from down in the hole. Sonic peered over the edge, looking down to the soft bottom. The construction workers were in various states of pulling their helmets off. Apparently, Eggman's mind-controlling broadcast was out of reach for the helmets to receive, allowing the workers enough free control to remove the helmets themselves.

"Hey, isn't that Sonic?" a Beaver asked.

"Yeah, it is! Hi Sonic!" a female human called up to him.

"Hi guys. I'll get you out of there in just a second. Sit tight for a moment." he said.


	13. Else: Part One

Else

A low, cool breeze ruffled the silky green grass of Villa Terrace, making the frame of trees on the fringe of the nearby woods whisper loudly in the midday sun, which had finally begun to shine after being obscured the last few days by the stubborn overcast clouds. Amy's pink house was slowly illuminated by a pillar of light as the offending clouds parted in the wind, reflecting a rosy glow against the grey-green flora surrounding it.

Amy shut her front door behind her and walked down the short path to her mailbox. Her flowers had begun to droop from the lack of sunlight, their fat orange and pink bulbs sagging, but she knew that they'd pull through. She opened the creaky hatch to her pink mailbox and pulled out her letters. There was some of the usual junk mail with flashy advertisements, and a postcard from Cream the Rabbit, wishing her well while she was on her extended vacation with her mother, Vanilla the Rabbit, and her pet Chao, Cheese.

She smiled as she skimmed her friend's card, until she spotted a letter she'd dropped on the ground. She forlornly picked up the white government-issue envelope, knowing exactly what was inside: her Welfare Monetary Notice. She tucked her letters under her arm and walked back into her house, making sure to hide her frown of worry.

"Amy, it's your turn again." Tyler said from the kitchen table, where he and Tails had set up a board game. Eggman hadn't been causing any trouble for nearly three weeks, so they decided to laze around for a little bit and play games until something more interesting occupied their attention.

"Be there in a minute," she said as she quickly hid the envelope in a cupboard, as if the white paper rectangle had something obscene scribbled all over it. _I don't want either of them to see that,_ she thought. "We got another postcard from Cream. She says that her vacation got extended again, so she won't be back for a while."

"Wow, you'd think that Vanilla is just **made** of money to go spending it on two-month-long vacations." Tails said, also sitting at the table with the television's remote control in hand, flipping through the channels.

"Cream says that there's a lot more Rings where she's at," Amy continued as she sat down, picking up a pair of dice.

"Well, I should think so. The D.A.S.W. doesn't have jurisdiction all the way over in Nekrapolis."

Amy tossed the dice on the table. "Four." She moved her pink gamepiece accordingly. Tails set down the remote after leaving it on the news channel and read off of a card. "Your character is stuck in quicksand. Use three tokens to free yourself."

"Darn, I have no tokens left." She said.

"Go to jail," Tyler said, pointing to the gray square on the board labeled 'prison.' Amy moved her piece there.

"My turn," Tails said. He cast the dice. "Six." He moved his spot, and Tyler picked up a card to read off of. The print was set in an octagonal text box, but the card was torn, cutting a tear through one of the octagon's sides. All of the card's instructions were printed in different geometric shapes, so this octagon really shouldn't have made Tyler pause for so long. Before he could read it, the television screeched loudly, making Tails' and Amy's fur stand up in surprise.

All three of them turned to look. A 'breaking news' title flashed in the bottom of the screen. One of the reporters' microphones had malfunctioned, resulting in the loud feedback sound. He was still wincing from the ring in his ears as he spoke.

"Ahem. Sorry about that, folks. We've just received word that the mutilator that had been spotted earlier today was recently captured," the news anchor announced, continuing a story he'd been reporting before Tails had changed to the current channel. The screen flashed to a grainy, shaky video of a hideously deformed black **thing**, lying in an unnatural position in a street. None of them could get a clear look at the thing, but what they **could** see reminded them of some sort of deep-sea fish, the kind with the giant fangs, black skin with red streaks, and creepy segmented eyes. It was very much dead, lying in a green puddle on the median line of the road, its spine arched almost in a ninety-degree angle.

"The creature was struck by a car off of Southern and Fletcher Avenue. It has been confirmed that this is the same creature that attacked Harold the Porcupine several hours ago."

"Tails...is that...is that what I think it is?" Amy gasped, dropping her gamepiece onto the table. Tails paused the screen and walked around the low wall into the living room, approaching the television and scrutinizing the image.

"I think so, Amy. It's a Black Arms alien..." he frowned. "Or at least, it looks like one...This one looks premature, though. Its back legs are much smaller than its front ones," he traced the screen with a gloved finger "...And Black Arms were bipedal to begin with. This one's a quadraped. And I remember Black Arms being smart enough to avoid traffic, unlike this one."

"They said that it attacked someone earlier today. Go get your computer thingy and check it out." Amy said, worriedly. Black Arms attacks had stopped a long time ago, shortly after Black Doom was destroyed. Without their leader, the Black Arms had wandered around without guidance, attacking anything that moved until G.U.N. wiped them out. So of course it was frightening to hear that one of them was still alive. And if one was running around causing havoc, then who was to say that there weren't more?

"Alright." Tails said. He grabbed his palm computer off of the sidetable next to the couch. He flicked the screen on and searched for news articles relating to the earlier attack. "Okay, here's what we got," he said.

"_Harold the Porcupine, 38, was mauled today while waiting for a bus between 19__th__ and 20__th__ Street today in Westopolis. Both Harold and other witnesses say that 'The monster came out of nowhere; it just ran out of an alley behind him and dragged him in there. Then his screaming got really loud. By then, someone had called the police, and some other people had run over to him to help. The thing crawled up the side of the building like some sort of...I dunno...spider, I guess. Harold was all bloody.'_

_It was confirmed by hospital staff that the creature tore off both of Harold's eyelids. He is now receiving surgery to replace them._"

"That's...that's awful." Amy said, shuddering.

"At least he's not dead. Why maul somebody just for their eyelids?" Tails wondered aloud.

Tyler didn't speak. He just stared at the octagon on the card.

...

Sonic looked down at the splattered mess that was once a Black Arms alien from his perch on top of a low building. The afternoon sun was already drying the steaming corpse into a congealed blob of organic material on the road as news reporters and pedestrians gathered around it, videotaping it on cameras and cell phones. The reporters didn't specifically identify it as an alien, lest they frighten the media and their viewers.

Why would a single Black Arms alien attack someone out in the open, like it had earlier that day? It was Sonic's understanding that Black Arms were intelligent, but he'd sat there and _watched_ the alien run straight into traffic and get plowed over by a truck. Black Arms invaded and populated other planets with incredible technology and skill, but this creature didn't seem to be any smarter than an attack dog. And the more Sonic thought about it, the more likely it was; what if it really was just an attack dog, or some low-level grunt Black Arm that had somehow avoided detection and survived up until now?

_It just doesn't make sense. If it wasn't smart enough to avoid being hit by a car, then it wouldn't be smart enough to stay out of sight all this time since Black Doom was destroyed. Does this have to do with...That smells good!_ Sonic's train of thought was interrupted as the light breeze wafted the smell of a chili dog vendor down below.

...

_Hmm...now, what was I thinking about? _Sonic thought as he threw the chili dog's wrapper away in a trash can._ I'm pretty sure it was something important...nah. Can't remember. Now I've gotta work off of these chili dogs. I can't let Amy think that I'm getting overweight, or she'll start making me eat diet food again. _He shuddered at that prospect, and proceeded to run his usual 100 laps around the entire city. He was done in several minutes.

Eventually, night fell on Westopolis as the giant orange globular sun sank behind the skyline. The downtown nightclubs opened, advertising their establishments in bright neon signs. The flowers in the botanical gardens shut their petals and went to sleep. Trees began to respire slowly in the lack of dark, inducing a calm atmosphere over the city. The glow of the jumbotron advertisement screens in Fletcher Plaza were bright enough that one didn't need the streetlights' help to see the road. Half of the people went to bed, while the other half officially started their "day" to go partying, drinking, and whatever else one felt like doing at night.

And Sonic was bored. Eggman hadn't shown his flabby face in three weeks, which wasn't all that unusual. Whenever Sonic would foil one of his schemes, it was natural for Eggman to go into hiding to regroup and replan. But that didn't help the fact that Sonic was bored _now_. He decided to take a quick run through the city, hoping that someone was in trouble. _And...Nope. Nothing._ No one was being mugged or robbed or murdered, not even in the ghettos. It was an all-around, irritatingly peaceful night. He slowed his run to a brisk jog and sat on a pedestrian bench in the G.U.N. district of the city.

The G.U.N. district was a wide plaza, surrounded on three sides by government buildings, one of which was the building that had the flooded basement from a few weeks ago. The two of the three buildings were blank and gray, with dark windows like blinded eyes, devoid of its usual occupants who'd now gone to sleep. In the center of the plaza was a very modern (if not uninspired and ugly) fountain; a black terraced concrete pyramid that shot water straight into the air. Names of financial contributors were engraved in the bricks of the plaza, but it was otherwise a flat, uninteresting plane of walkway within the semi-courtyard.

Sonic groaned and leaned back on the bench. _No point in staying awake. I might as well get some sleep. Maybe Egghead's gonna pull something tomorrow...maybe a giant robot in the shape of a giraffe...Yeah. That'd be cool... _He nodded off to sleep, his chin bobbing against his collarbone.

The whirring sound of the city's activities lulled him into semi consciousness; the quiet rumble of the cars driving across the tarmac, the buzz of the electrical lights, the breeze through the decorative trees, and all the other sounds that accompany the night.

Yet, why did the buzzing get louder, and more...rhythmic? The buzzing was beating a rhythm...buzz, pause, buzz, pause...

Sonic opened his eyes blearily, momentarily annoyed that he'd been woken up. His shadow stretched across the ground in front of him in a sheet of red light that flashed in synchronization with the buzzing. Sonic turned around and saw that alarms had been raised within the G.U.N. buildings.

The Biotech building was one of the more architecturally creative buildings in the G.U.N. plaza. The skyscraper was shaped like a sail, or a vertical butcher knife poised to stab the sky. The bottom was wider than the top, which tapered to a point. During the day, you could see that the building was white, with the sky reflecting on the shiny blue and chrome windows. But at night, and especially with the alarms flashing, it looked more like a tombstone.

Sonic spindashed through the glass-fronted lobby of the Biotech building (even though there was a door), exploding the glass inward with his momentum, and sending slivers and shards spiraling across the room, mingling the smell of outside traffic with indoor air conditioning. The marble lobby was similar to the lobby in the other G.U.N. building, but much smaller, and made of pinkish stone rather than greenish stone. The circular receptionist desk was empty, a vacant crater in the rhythmic flashing red alarm lights. Sonic shrugged fragments of glass off of his fur and ran to the set of elevators, glancing into the shadows of the marble columns in case any hidden robots decided to attack.

He quickly punched the elevator button. The light over the golden double doors blinked green, and the cab opened with a chime. Sonic stepped inside, but realized that he didn't know where to go. He glanced at the buttons, and assumed that anything of importance would be on the lower levels. He hit the basement button, and the doors closed, sealing off the lobby and the alarm noises and replacing them with dull elevator music. The elevator descended much too slowly for Sonic's taste, and decided to spend the next few seconds thinking about possible plans of action once he met with Eggman or Mephiles in the basement.

The golden doors slid open once again, and Sonic was almost stampeded by a snowstorm of white lab coats. The doctors, scientists, and a handful of security guards of Biotech were frantically fleeing the basement. Sonic squeezed out from between them into the hall, finally being noticed by the physicians.

"Look everyone! It's Sonic!" An Aardvark cried. The others cheered.

"Thank the Unnamed God!"

"He'll know what to do!"

"He looked taller on television..."

Sonic stopped the elevator from closing by placing his hand over the groove that the doors slid from.

"What's happening here? Why's the alarm raised?" he asked.

"Black Arms attacked." The Aardvark said. "We don't know how, or why, but they're here. And they seem...different from what we remember. We dissected the carcasses that were left behind from their last attack, and these new beings don't really resemble them--."

"Okay, I get it." Sonic interrupted, already bored. "You guys get back upstairs. I'll handle everything down here." He removed his hand, and the elevator closed.

He turned around. The hallway was short, more of an antechamber than anything else, with a shiny metal floor with diamond-shaped bumps in it for traction. The metal entrance doors normally required a key card and a retinal scan, but they'd been pried open by some sort of purple, glassy material that had shattered all over the floor, as if the doors had been wrenched open by a stained-glass crowbar. Sonic stepped around the shards and walked through another antehall through another set of security doors, similarly bent open.

Through the final doors was a blindingly bright white room. The low ceiling was one giant fluorescent white light square, reflecting off of the walls and white tiled floor. Rows of silvery metal tables littered with microscopes, viewing slides, and petri dish cultures filled the room. Some of the tables had been knocked over, spilling dyes and chemicals, and sheathing the floor in viscous puddles. Metal cabinets lined one wall, most likely containing various scientific equipment. They'd recently been dented. Another wall was lined with doors that led to the refrigeration chambers, with large thick windows set into the even thicker doors.

One of the doors to the refrigeration chambers had also been forced open, the door jamb buckled over like an accordion, and spilling out a soft puddle of coolant vapor into the room. Sonic hesitantly crossed the room towards it, keeping his eyes peeled for any movement in the room. He accidentally trod in a rivulet of spilled blue dye, stamping the pattern of his sneaker's sole as he approached the refrigerator. As he passed a set of cabinets, he smelled something awful, like rotting salt. He covered his nose as he passed it, deciding to investigate it after the refrigerator.

The refrigerator room was small, but packed with revolving columnar stands of test tubes and petri dishes that required low temperatures to cure and propagate. Sonic idly spun one of the racks with his hands, turning it slowly as the frigid temperature began to worm its way through his fur, giving him goosebumps. Each rack had been labeled in minuscule electronic screens. The rack stopped spinning, and his hand rested on a vial of separated Atlantean protein, labeled in the tiny blue electronic characters. He looked at the rest of the racks, all blinking at him in their blue labels. Except for one.

Sonic turned the rack towards him. The screen had been cracked, rendering the label almost unreadable with its erratic flickering. He squinted his eyes and read "Aquilus Arma." Black Arms. The slot that usually contained either a petri dish or a test tube was empty. Mephiles and Eggman had ransacked Biotech for Black Arms DNA.

So what were they going to do with it? Create some sort of army of half-formed, half-miscarriaged aliens? Or did they need this DNA to perfect their design? Where did they get the first set of DNA in the first place? Was it from Black Doom's ornamental chain? Sonic's previous unfinished thoughts rushed back and struck him like a fallen pile of bricks. He knew why Eggman and Mephiles were here now, and he knew that they'd gotten it.

But where were they now?

Sonic rushed back to the main laboratory, spiraling flurries of white vapor as he left the refrigerator. He ran up to the foul-smelling cabinet and grabbed the handle, steeling himself for what might be inside. He held his breath and pulled it open, before quickly stepping back.

A stream of steaming green liquid seeped out from underneath the cabinet's doors. Two bodies fell out of it, landing on the tiled floor with a wet smacking noise. These Black Arms aliens were designed better; their legs were almost the same size, and their fangs were small enough to actually allow their mouths to close. But their throats had been gouged open, crystal razors still embedded at their clavicles. It was the same type of glassy material that had torn the first security door open.

Sonic covered his nose again to block the smell of their pungent blood. They really shouldn't smell this bad, considering they could only have been dead for a few minutes. With his mouth and nose still covered, he hesitantly bent over one of the dead aliens and pulled out a glassy sliver. He held it up to the light, gazing at the translucent lavender shard. What could've made it?

He then remembered the fight he had with Mephiles a few weeks earlier; when Mephiles had gotten frustrated, his purple beams had raked up the ashes of Central City into crystals. Is that what this was? Could Mephiles create crystals?

"Fascinated?" a voice said. Sonic dropped the crystal, surprised, letting it crack onto the floor. Mephiles was across the room, arms crossed and still wearing Shadow's form, glaring unblinkingly at him.

Sonic got into a battle-ready position. "I know why you're here," Sonic said.

"Do you, now? It wasn't obvious?"

"Of course it was," Sonic lied. "You're tampering with Black Arms DNA."

Mephiles clapped. "Brilliant deduction. You get an 'A' for effort."

"So what's with the two stiffs in the closet?" Sonic asked, jerking his thumb towards the dead aliens.

"They tripped the alarm." Mephiles said offhandedly. "I couldn't let something like that go unpunished."

"So where's Egghead?"

"Probably making things worse for himself, monologuing to those hapless scientists upstairs, and giving you more time to defeat him." Mephiles said, almost rolling his eyes in annoyance. "Humans seem to take great comfort in the inferiority of others for Eggman to be so fervent on impressing the other physicians."

"So is that why you're here? To stall me so Eggman can get away?" Sonic demanded, preparing to curl into a ball and slash Mephiles into black licorice.

"Not exactly. Eggman is the only other person, other than myself, whom I intend to keep alive tonight."

Sonic braced himself as Mephiles released a spear of greasy indigo light in his direction.

...

**_Omagod! I'm sorry this chapter came so late. It was supposed to be posted like, three weeks ago. I had a betareader who mysteriously disappeared (but she came back, so it's all good!) and an unofficial betareader who just started a new story (and I didn't wanna bother him with this). So getting this betaread took FOREVER! Fortunately I was able to find another betareader (who's name I won't say unless he or she wants me to)._**

**_That, and I have a new deviantart account, which is taking up a LOT of my time. Two people have expressed interest in making Reverse Psychology a comic! Yayness! I'll also be making some illustrations for this if I have time. _**

**_The next chapter will be coming soon, I promise. And it's going to kick A$$!!! So for all two of you that were wondering if I'd abandoned this, you can chill now. _**

**_Please review. Reviews give me magical powers that help me complete new chapters on no sleep and no food. Oh, and remember to vote in whatever poll is posted on my profile (I change it a lot, but the poll results help me with new chapters). If you were one of the (few) people who were waiting for this story to be updated, let me know in a review. I'll be able to gauge how quickly I should finish the next chapter based off of that._**

**_KTHXBYE!_**


	14. Else: Part Two

**_A/N: Yay for short chapters! :D Sorry._**

* * *

The alarms had finally shut off within the Biotech building, lowering a heavy silence among the frightened scientists in the lobby like an executioner's axe. The physicians were on the ground with their hands over their heads in positions of surrender while Eggman surveyed them in his floating pod, scanning them with his console for any cell phones or other messaging devices, and destroying any that he found.

"I suggest that you all stay low. I'm not exactly the worst shot," Eggman said, waving a pistol as he spoke, "But my trigger finger has a tendency to slip." He fired once, purposely grazing the red beam of energy near one of the scientists and blasting apart a floor tile. "Understand? Good. Now stay there and don't move."

Eggman swiveled the pod over the circular receptionist's desk and leaned his flabby head onto his palm. What was taking Mephiles so long? Eggman knew that Mephiles loved to take his time, but this was getting ridiculous. Eggman had already monologued to the scientists, labeling them as inferior peons who weren't fit to _clean_ a laboratory, much less _use_ one. So he now had nothing to do. Plus, the longer they stayed here, the greater the chance Sonic would show up, and that was the last thing he needed at the moment.

One of the physician's legs had fallen to sleep, causing him to lean over slightly. Eggman shot at him, singeing the man's white coat.

"First warning. Next person that moves gets to watch one of their coworkers burst like a hypotonic cell." he said. The scientists looked away from him fearfully, not wanting to catch his eye.

Eggman holstered his pistol and waited, twitching his mustache in annoyance. Sonic was probably on his way at this very moment, and Eggman was just _sitting_ there, waiting for that insipid blue rodent to show up.

There was a soft rumble emanating from the floor. One of the scientists looked at the other in askance. The other one shrugged. There was another rumble, sharper then the last, then--

_SHREEEEK_. A spiky blue ball jettisoned out of the floor, cracking apart the marble tiles like the shell of a gum ball. The azure blob of spines continued moving upward, and crashed into the ceiling, forcing Eggman to move out of the way of resulting falling debris.

Out of the first hole rose Mephiles, standing erect as he glared at the second hole that Sonic had disappeared through. The dents and divots in his skull slowly expanded back into shape, like a slowly inflating balloon.

"Complications?" Eggman asked.

"Yes." Mephiles replied. Sonic fell back from the floor above and smashed his enemy downward back into the hole they'd come from.

Eggman stared at the void, waiting for them to reappear. Deep down in the basement levels of the Biotech building, he could hear crackles of what sounded like electricity, accompanied by purple blares of light. Another rumble vibrated through the lobby, and the elevator doors exploded open, releasing two violently bouncing balls of quills. The black and blue masses ricocheted around the lobby like an enormous pinball game, rebounding off of the marble pillars and commercial plaques before finally throwing each other out of the glass revolving door, and into the G.U.N. plaza.

...

Despite the battle going on inside, the G.U.N. plaza was mostly calm. The police still hadn't arrived yet, and Eggman had locked down the other G.U.N. buildings, trapping anyone who would bother him inside. The octagonally tiered fountain continued to burble noisily in the center, sloshing water down it's harsh concrete angles. The calm was shattered just as easily and abruptly as the glass-fronted facade of the Biotech building as the two Hedgehogs (or whatever creature Mephiles was) were thrown out.

Sonic landed with Mephiles under him, his knees planted on his torso and his fists pinning Mephiles' shoulders to the ground. Mephiles raised his palm in front of Sonic's face, who quickly backflipped off of him before the violet javelin of hardened air could spear through his eye socket.

"I was hoping you would bring us out here. It _is_ a beautiful night tonight." Mephiles said. "I am looking forward to fixing that--" He was interrupted as Sonic punched him in the stomach. Mephiles flew back, but somersaulted to stay upright. He fired several more blasts, taking out fist-size chunks of the plaza's floor as Sonic wove around the barrage, his quills whipping around from the displaced air of the blasts.

He came up to Mephiles again and grabbed him by the throat, slamming him against the concrete wall of the second G.U.N. building, hard enough to crack the surrounding windows.

"You're really pissing me off." Sonic said.

"Well, it seems that--"

Sonic slammed him again, and the cracks grew wider. "No. No vague speeches. Tell me what you're planning."

Mephiles glared at him. "You have nothing that could possibly force me to divulge such inform--" he was interrupted for the third time that evening as Sonic kneed him in the stomach, which was still indented from the earlier punch. Sonic felt several bonelike structures inside Mephiles shift with sickening cracking sounds."--And repeatedly striking me isn't going to help y--" Sonic slammed him again, flattening the back of Mephiles' formerly rigid skull and quills. "STOP THAT!" Mephiles roared.

Short, thin black spines stabbed outward from Mephiles' body in vertical rows, like the pattern of needles on a cactus. At least three of the glistening, damp spines punctured into Sonic's hand. He quickly let go as a thin, pale liquid welled up in the holes of his glove that eventually mingled with his own blood. The spines retracted back into whatever skeletal system Mephiles had with a short _sssshing_ sound.

Sonic knew that the liquid had to be some sort of venom, so he pulled his fist back, preparing to punch Mephiles again. But while Sonic had been concerned with his hand, Mephiles had regained his composure and blasted Sonic backwards.

Sonic was pushed back several yards, the back of his skull connecting with the pyramidal fountain in the center of the courtyard. Rivulets of water ran down his face and around the hair-thin shards of lilac embedded in his shoulders and muzzle. Since his hand was held up when Mephiles had blasted him, it had blocked the bulk of the attack, and saved him from getting crystalline shrapnel in his eyes or throat. Unfortunately, his hand strongly resembled an icy pincushion now. Mephiles' attack hadn't been all that strong, most likely due to Sonic's repeated slamming of him, but the venom was definitely starting to affect him now.

Sonic struggled to stand, groping the angular black cement steps behind him for support. The steps were too slick with water, and he fell back against it, striking his head on a sharp edge in an already wounded area. Water spilled over him.

"Nice job, Mephy. Direct hit." Sonic smirked, his eyes clouding over.

"I try." he replied, slowly walking over to him, examining him with his disturbingly reptilian eyes, measuring the damage he'd inflicted. "You are much hardier than those repulsive Aquilius Arma drones. I am almost impressed."

"I'm glad I can keep you entertained. That was a nice trick. The whole poisonous-pricking thing. Smart." Sonic's vision became blurred around the edges. Mephiles stood over him and picked him up by the throat.

"Indeed it was. I happen to be full of surprises such as those." he said, tightening his grip. Sonic cringed as his airway was restricted. "Such a pity that you'll never see them. Eggman will be glad when he hears that I have finally rid this world of you, and I must say, so will I. You _are_ a rather annoying specimen."

"I try." Sonic smirked, repeating Mephiles' earlier remark. Mephiles squeezed tighter.

"And try you did."

Sonic's bravado was wearing off; this was usually the part where somebody would run in and save him. His limbs were numb, and the lack of oxygen in his brain was slowly making him pass out. He glanced over Mephiles' head at the buildings, hoping to see an orange, fuzzy blur speeding into the scene. Even if Tails was here, Sonic wouldn't be able to see him, since the venom had blotted out most of his vision. All he could see was his own pitiful, wounded self reflected in Mephiles' eyes.

"Nobody's coming," Mephiles whispered. "You have no help on the way."

This was it. The real finale. Mephiles was in the perfect position to kill Sonic. It was all over now.

Then why did his grip loosen?

"Nobody's coming to help you," he reiterated. "Nobody will see you die. And this is rather anticlimactic; I feel no sense of closure here. It was an unusually short fight, with no casualties, no innocent lives lost."

Mephiles went silent, and remained silent for a full thirty seconds, his eyes unfocused. Sonic waited with a quirked eyebrow, confused. Why was Mephiles taking so much time? (Not that he was complaining)

Mephiles' attention finally went back to Sonic, and he regained a firmer grip around his throat. Mephiles looked at him and _smiled_.The flesh on the edges of Mephiles' muzzle wrinkled and folded upwards as if a mouth were actually there, creating a repulsive, distorted expression. Still smiling, he dropped Sonic into the lower pool of the fountain, where he sank underwater. Sonic was already almost paralyzed by this point, and couldn't tell the difference between the venom-blurred world above and the wavy distorted light filtering into the pool below.

As Sonic lost consciousness, he knew for a fact that Mephiles hadn't spared him out of pity.

Mephiles had a plan.

And that plan now included Sonic's death as an amusing side-event.

* * *

**_A/N: (Continued) Wow! This chapter was even crappier than I thought now that I've uploaded it! :D Yay for me! AND it's the shortest chapter I've ever written! Yeah. I wanted to post this so that the story could be updated. I'm not very motivated to continue writing this, since my Deviantart account is receiving a lot more attention. But I will continue this story, don't worry. The next chapters are the chapters I've been plannning since BEFORE this story was even written. Yep, that's right! We're done with filler material! YAY!_**

**_God I'm so tired right now ^^; _**

**_Please review; reviews pull me away from Deviantart long enough to continue writing this story. They're more important to me than you realize._**


	15. Author's Note

A/N: Hey guys. Here's the deal:

Reverse Psychology won't be updated as soon as I'd like. But I'm not abandoning this story. In fact, quite the opposite. The reason the next chapter isn't going to be posted anytime soon is because, (drumroll)....it's being adapted into a webcomic. That's why this has been so inactive for so long ^^

PLEASE don't write a review for this chapter. If you do, then once I post the REAL story chapter in this spot, then this website won't allow you to post another one. If you wanna say something about this, then send me a message :D

Again, sorry for the delay, but it's not because I'm lazy. Once I get the first volume of the comic posted on deviantart dot com, I'll post a link to it on my profile.

KTHXBAI, Brice.


	16. Author's Note Part Two :D

**Incredibly overdue author's note DX**

I obviously haven't worked on this story in a long time due to lack of motivation and waning interest. So I think it's safe to say that this story is pretty much finished. And on a cliffhanger, too. Awww XD

I don't know. Maybe I'll retool it and reboot the whole story now that I have a better handle on writing.

What do ya'll think? I haven't been on FF for so long, I wouldn't be surprised if half of you died from natural causes by now.

Review plz c:


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